>> announcer: this is an abc news special, "your voice, your vote," election night 2012 live from abc news election night headquarters in times square, new york, now reporting, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and finally it is here. we're here in times square for election night 2012 at the abc news election headquarters. great to have you with us. all day long we've been watching grandmothers, first-time voters, rich people, poor people, blue collar workers, all the people who believe in america going to the polls, every state of our union today joining together at the ballot boxes, and we will be bringing you the results. we are here to tell you who won, why throughout this evening and what's next. it's your voice as we've been saying and your vote tonight. >> diane, it has been a long, bitter and expensive race. deadlocked most of the way and

revealed an america divided in so many ways. tonight, all of you are going to tip the balance. >> and now we are ready to begin because we have three projections to make because the polls have closed in six states and we are ready to go. here it is. indiana, this state has switched, president obama won it four years ago, governor romney has won it this time. it is not a surprise, though. we were expecting governor romney to take indiana. kentucky, this is a very red state and governor romney has taken kentucky, as well, tonight. and vermont, a very blue state weighing in early and president obama, abc news, based on the exit polls is ready to project a winner in vermont right now. let's tell you about other states. we have too little information to make a projection. georgia, a red state, bill clinton won in 1992, but no other republican or every republican has won since then and south carolina, solid red

state, not enough information to project at this point, so -- and virginia, this is a big one, george, and we do not have enough information at this moment. we are watching it every single moment. we'll bring you the news as we have it. >> that is the biggest surprise so far. a must win for mitt romney. the overall map. as you said no big surprises right now. a lot of votes outstanding but the polls are closing. the race could not be closer. both 2012 stavote 2012 starts r. >> are you fired up? are you ready to go? >> i believe in america. i believe in you. >> announcer: the speeches are over. the campaigning done. tonight across america your voice has been heard. your vote's being counted so who will win this crucial election for president? now the abc news political team takes you everywhere to chicago inside the obama campaign and boston behind the scenes with romney. to the heated battleground states across the country where this election will be decided

and our team tracking your vote everywhere in the crossroads of the world with the crowds in times square. and with our partners from univision in miami plus abc's barbara walters, katie couric and our powerhouse team telling you who's winning and why on this historic night, election night 2012, the stakes so high, the race so close, america's next president decided tonight. it's "your voice, your vote." once again from abc news election headquarters in times square, new york, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> you are looking at times square, usa, the pulse of the nation. also the crossroads of the world, 182 million people pass through here every year and tonight, it is election headquarters for abc news and we are so glad to have you back with us on this very big night, george. >> we have an entire team right

out here with us. our reporters an analysts over on that side of the room, jon karl karl, cokie robert, ron brownstein. our poll watchers and polling, gary langer and on this side, of course, a team with so much experience and so many presidential campaigns working in them and covering them, as well. >> the mt. everest over there of expertise and insight tonight. and also we are in touch with you throughout the evening, katie couric is manning our social media headquarters, great to see you, katie. >> thanks, diane. >> as we all remember that tonight is the night as someone said democracy is not who we are, it is what we do, and our big map is going to be showing everybody at home the states as they come in and as we project them and at this moment just to say it once again, the polls have closed in six states, we projected three states, no surprises in them so far, two for romney, one for obama, and we have a lot of other states including virginia, not enough information. >> and that is a big one, diane.

die want to start out with matthew dowd worked in many presidential campaign rooms, most recently for george w. bush and as i mentioned at the top, this entire race has been defined by deadlock. it's been a tied race most of the way and real division in this country. >> i think what we'll see, the thing we'll want to see from tonight is what does the country look like really and what -- how is the makeup of the electorate? that will tell us a lot. are we still on a transition we've been on for the last 20 year, which is a different country three, four presidential elections ago and even 2004 is a huge -- and the geography of the country will tell us where we are. big, broad things, what does the country look like? >> george will covered elections since 1972 am i right about that? >> correct. >> so what's the main thing you'll be watching tonight? >> i'm going to watch to see if the country behaves the way it talks. that is, instead that we're a nation serious about the status

quo yet if mr. obama were to be re-elected we will have had for the second time in history three consecutive two-term presidents and stability in executive office and furthermore, if he's re-elected and if the democrats hold the senate and republicans hold the house, washington on the morning after is going to look very much like washington the day before. >> of course, nicolle wallace who worked in the pal in/mccain campaign four years ago, george w. bush, the huge issue, overwhelming issue, the economy. that is the issue that mitt romney wanted to make his calling card. >> that's right. they are looking at the same information we're looking at as people are still voting, you know, they're hoping that's what they had in mind when they went to the polls today. they made a sales pitch that was 100% about voters being dissatisfied with the pace of recovery. that was the beginning, middle and end of mitt romney's pitch to the american people and they're on the same pins and

needles we are to see if it worked. >> donna brazile, one thing we saw, the exitle pos and a surprise to me in the exit polls if we can pull it up now, we asked about the direction of the country and one thing that it showed, donna brazile, who worked for campaign manager for al gore back in 2000, a dramatic reduction over the last year in people who think the country is going on the wrong track, just 52% today. it was 77% a year ago. >> i think the president knew from the jump that he had to convince the american people that he had the right policies, the right visions to move the country forward. four years ago the country was in a deep, you know, sorrowful mood. they wanted somebody who could get in the white house and stabilize the economy on the barack obama leadership and found that person, that individual, that vision and i think tonight you'll see that most americans are now looking forward to another four years. >> i want to point out that nicolle and donna were on opposite sides in 2000 watching that nail-biting time in

american life but we also have some have you results coming in on the early voting. to jonathan karl who covers congress for us. you have the very latest now. and tell us how big the early voting is and what you know about it right now. >> it was huge. more than one out of every three voters cast their ballots before polling places opened this morning. we had 46 million people we estimate voted early. that is 36% of the electorate, diane and in our latest abc news/"washington post" poll we have an estimate of how those early voters voted and take a look at this. president obama won among the early voters, 52%-45%. sounds like a pretty big deal, seven-point spread but keep in mind four years ago he actually won the early vote by 18%. he would have lost if it was only those people who voted on election day so the president has a much smaller lead among the early vote going into this election which suggests at least a much closer race. >> and, again, we've been

hearing anecdotally all day about people lining up for hours and hours and hours at the polls to make sure they vote and we know the voting is still going on and we are only going to be projecting after polls have closed in the states we promise you that. i want to tell you about our decision desk because our decision desk is a kind of brain trust. they are an incredible group of people. we would show them to you but we can't because we can't call them and say, oh, please tell me something. they are there and they're in a closed room. they are looking at all of the exit polling results, they are weighing them against what they know about every single precinct. they are cross-correcting for any mistakes that might be in those exit polls and want to make sure every projection we bring you is absolutely right. >> and we will wait till the last minute to do it if we have to, absolutely, diane. i want to go to katie couric covering social media at the big board. >> you know, this is really the first truly digital election as

we know. social media is playing a bigger role than ever before and nobody here wants to hear this, but 80% of the people in this country get their political news online. sorry, everybody, but if you have any dows about the importance of social media, all you have to do is take a look at twitter, by the way, now, in 2008, 3 million were on twitter but this year now 70 million americans are, in fact, on twitter. now, who are they? here's who they are. it's 70% of them are under the age of 44. 60% of them are women. 30% of them are african-americans, all demographics that favor president obama. now, you want to know about how many tweets there have been during this election cycle? 358 million tweets altogether if you can believe that. but that doesn't mean they've all been positive, right. 98 million tweets for president obama. 45% positive, 55% negative. as we know if you are mentioned in a tweet it doesn't necessarily mean it's

complimentary. when it comes to governor romney he's been in 85 million tweet, 61% negative. 39% positive and, george, you know, we were interested too in the number of people who were saying this country was on the wrong track declining, in fact. so we actually asked people about that. why do you have a change of heart? because we're ending war, not starting them and the economy has been improving, not getting worse. someone else wrote we're no longer on the wrong track. on the right track. many indicators prove as such, stocks up, corporate profits up, home values up, exports up and construction up. we're going to pay attention to what's trending online. this photo is trending. big bird waiting in line to vote just like the rest of us. who could have imagined that big bird binders and horses and bayonets would be the memorable term of this election. >> that debate where big bird was mentioned seems like a million years ago. >> it seems like a century ago and, katie, i was tweeting out today to people and saying just

tell me the first word that comes to mind. it was so moving today because in my word cloud of all the words people sent back, the number one were hope, then there was also pride and the third one was relief. >> and a lot of optimism as we pointed out. >> that's true. >> as we know, this is an election that his about america families and taxes and health care in this country, ending a war and also trying to make sure that we own the future in this country and our own josh elliott is out in the freezing cold. we hope that he has a lot of clothes on tonight, because he is there with some of the people starting to gather to watch us on all the big screens out in times square. >> indeed, diane. well, mom's best advice, layers, layers, i'm layered and ready for bear and we saw big bird in line. i'm standing in perhaps the only place you'll see a six-fight big bird.

the crossroads of the world and tonight, well, with all respect to katie couric, this might be the most social of media. it is social media incarnate where america will gather. already seeing the crowd gather and it is an am pi nighter they will be gathering in. adrian, if you want to pan across the second floor studio you'll see the nasdaq sign and the reuters sign, they will be bringing you the information, the polling data and the pictures of this evening as people gather here in times square come to see history four years ago it was a coronation they came to see, tonight it will be a very different sort of history. we have heard our analysts talk about a bitter and divided america. it will be interesting to see if that dynamic plays out here as it does, we will have it for you, again, as well, the temperature drops but the emotions rise, election night is under way down below, diane. >> all right, josh, we'll be coming back to you. as we said, 182 million people

passing through times square every year. and we want to point out that we are being seen tonight all over the world. and we're being seen by people who care so much about what happens in this country and who dream of a democracy for themselves, we're being seen from mexico to britain. we're being seen from china to brazil and i love, george, reading today that there was a little group in laos who wanted to have a vote themselves. why? just to be able to vote. >> we'll have to get the results on that. meanwhile, president obama is back in chicago where he was four years ago. jake tapper has been with him all the way covering the white house and the campaign, as well, and, jake, the president following familiar rituals today. >> reporter: that's right. the number one familiar ritual, of course, is that the president played basketball today with a bunch of his friends and chicago bull scottie pippen. this is a tradition he established really a superstition during the 2008 primaries.

he played on the day of the iowa caucus and won the iowa caucus. he did not play on the day of the new hampshire primary. he lost that and, of course, the fact that he didn't play basketball was the reason he lost that, so the superstition has been with him ever since and plays basketball on any big primary, caucus or election day and, of course, he played today. he's also been spending a lot of time with his old friends from chicago and a lot of the old team from his 2008 campaign, some of them have gone on to pursue other endeavors or worked on the campaign instead of the white house and he's been spending a lot of time with them. he had dinner with a bunch of them last night. one of them, david axelrod, said to me there was almost a feel of the last episode of a long-running tv show where all the beloved characters from seasons past come back and appear on the show, though they don't expect that the show has been canceled. it's just the last campaign for president obama. so he has been participating in these touchstone activities, george. >> but, jake, i want to

intervene if i can for a moment just to ask you, because we are told that the president has written two versions of his speech for tonight. governor romney has written only one for victory. is this the case, two versions? either way? >> reporter: that's right. he has two versions, he says, you can't be too careful. and he is not one to try to jinx himself. this is a guy -- a lot of politicians are rather superstitious carrying with them things they pick up on the trail and the idea that he would come here armed only with a victory speech is not the way he views the race. they have viewed it for more than a year as a very, very close race. they have tried to do what they can to win it, obviously. establishing that midwest fire wall of states that they've really focused on, ohio, iowa, wisconsin, if the president holds on to the states that john kerry won, the traditional democratic states and just keeps those three, then he will be re-elected. it is a tougher path electorally

for mitt romney but as they have focused on that, they have always said this is going to be a very, very close race and i have a feeling that they would think it was a bad juju in order -- about they only brought one speech, one victory speech. i'm kind of actually surprised that mitt romney admitted they only had a victory speech but i suppose different strokes. >> he's projecting confidence today and by going into the states of ohio and pennsylvania trying to campaign right up until the last minute. david muir with him. >> reporter: and not only does he have a victory speech but we know how many words. you know mitt romney is known as a businessman, a numbers guy as his history with bain capital. very successful business history and had the precise numbers, 1118 on his ipad. even with people at the polls he was traveling to ohio and pennsylvania, ohio, because that is the key state tonight for the formula to get to 270. it's very difficult, mitt romney would have to have a near sweep

of the other battlegrounds. if he doesn't pick up those 18 electoral votes but one other way around it if he weren't to get ohio, pennsylvania could make up the difference and he's been in pennsylvania. he went there today. they've been spending money there in the last week. they're not guaranteeing victory there. i talked with a senior adviser who told me though the race is very close according to their internal numbers and saw real opportunity particularly among independent voters, voters who liked the moderate mitt romney, who remembered his tenure as massachusetts governor in the suburbs of pittsburgh and the suburbs of philadelphia so he went to pittsburgh and philadelphia today and there was a moment when he got off the plane, george and diane in pittsburgh and he saw that there were supporters gathered at a parking garage on several levels of the parking garage. he looked over and they started cheering him on and it was funny. we asked him afterward what he made of that sight. he was not expecting it and he said, well, intellectually i'm prepared to win this race tonight but emotionally i hadn't gone there yet. emotionally it registered with me when i was surprised by the number of people who were

waiting for him to arrive there in pittsburgh. it was a powerful moment. he put his hand on his heart and wafered to the crowd, very excited and hopeful they'll be able to pull a pennsylvania tonight but, george and diane they've been talking a confident talk on ohio and believe they have a real chance there because of independence and because of their ground game. they say far ahead of where the mccain team was four years ago. >> all right, david and when we come back, we're going to have more on virginia, those electoral votes. 13 electoral votes critical stat state, as you know, it's been a photo finish in the old dominion state and we'll tell you what we have learned with we come back. >> announcer: "your voice, your vote," election night 2012 will return in a moment.

i make my living asking tough questions... so, here's a question for you. if you had the power... to save a life... would you? i have a chance to survive blood cancer... because my big sister answered "yes" to being my marrow donor. right now, you can go to bethematch.org... and offer a cure to someone with a disease like leukemia. so...what will your answer be? >> announcer: "your voice, your

vote," election night 2012, live from times square, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and we are back. polls closing in the big battleground state of ohio in just seven minutes and now that we're back, diane, we want to show all of our viewers one of the tools to show all of them the paths that each campaign has, the all-important 270 electoral votes. barack obama starts out with a solid lead in blue states adding up to 237 electoral votes. you see it right there, mitt romney has 206 electoral votes pretty solidly locked up coming into tonight and bring in matt dowd as we talk about the importance of virginia, matt, we made the point early on that mitt romney really does have to win virginia, not only virginia but also florida in the southeast to be competitive in this race tonight, but that is not enough. as we move to the midwest he's going to have po pick off one of the key states in barack obama's fire wall, either ohio or wisconsin because you see what happens right there, if the president gets both ohio and

wisconsin he only five votes away from an electoral lock. >> well, this is the difficult route that br has. he has to take the atlantic coasts sta s states and move i into the midwest and start picking off midwestern states. early in the night if he sees trouble in those, it's going to be a very difficult night for mitt romney. he has to win those three atlantic coast states. >> if he doesn't, if the president wins any one if we go back to the what if board in the middle. any one of these in play where he's ahead or tied he has 270 electoral votes. >> let's head off to richmond, virginia, with amy klobuchar robach. i know you're at a dnc headquarters. >> reporter: i'm wearing purple. it was completely coincidental but very appropriate because this is a solid purple state,

virginia is a divided state and many describe it as two different states. you have the northern part of virginia and then the rest of this state. i actually had the opportunity of heading out to fairfax county, mclean, virginia, to talk to a group of neighbors who had competing sign, campaign signs, one romney, one obama and they were talking about what was driving them to the polls and it was interesting, they weren't talking about the economy, they were talking about social issues, talking about abortion, gay marriage, church versus state, health care reform and they were very passionate about these issues, and that's what's going to decide this election here in virginia. it's going to be enthusiasm and mitt romney needs enthusiastic voters in the southern part of the state, coal country in the southwest areas, military stronghold and more importantly he needs those x-burbs, prince william county that voted for obama in 2008 to swing in his direction to come out in droves to make the difference for him

because as we heard george mention, virginia is virtually a must win for romney. it's a fire wall for obama. it's a luxury for obama. but romney needs virginia, guys, back to you. >> right now it is a state that cannot be called. the votes still coming in in virginia. many more results coming in including the big battleground state of ohio coming up at 7:30. a lot of other big states coming in at 8:00. by 8:00 half the country will have voted. diane, we will be right back with more. >> announcer: "your voice, your vote," election night 2012 will return in a moment.

good afternoon, i'm cherylj÷ jennings with this abc 7 news lerks update. today's election may have a record turn out in california. the secretary of state says many precincts reporting a high volume of voters. 18 million people registered to vote for the election. that is a state record. half of those plan to vote by mail.uu=÷ >> really interesting to see

such a large turn out in polling places because i'm also suspecting that we're going to have largest vote by mail turn out in the history of the state. >> that is a big achievement considering only 31% of the eligible voters took part in the june primary. many voters dropped off ballot was out leaving their cars. san jose's most watched race is measure did. california schools banking on prop 30, governor jerry brown proposed that plan, today voted for it. people in oakland greeted him in the oakland hills, proposition 30 raises money for public schools and community colleges and temporarily add a quarter cent tax to state sales tax and raise taxes for californians earning more than $250,000 a year. opponents say it's too expensive. here is a look at propositions. prop 32 preventing unions from deducting money from paychecks

to be used to be political funding. prop 36 would revise california's three strikes law. and propos3s]u 37 would add new food labeling requirements. proposition 38 is a competing tax measure to fund schools. the department of justice will have federal observers in polling stations in alameda county today. 800 monitors will be watching for potential voting rights violations in 23 states. if you have trouble voting you can report any problems at your polling station to abc 7 news election hot line. the number is on the screen. and we have that number posted for you on abc 7 news.com. you still have three and a half hours to vote in the bay area, when polls close tonight at 8:00, abc 7 news will be live with the first returns. you can get results at abc 7 news.com and live updates on facebook.com/abc 7 news and through twitter.

>> announcer: this is an abc news special, "your voice, your vote," election night 2012, live from abc news election night headquarters in times square, new york, now reporting, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and good evening, and welcome back on this 57th presidential election in the history of the united states. i want to show you again people all across this country still at the polls, still waiting in line, some of them, and so many people showing up to say, this election matters. they will -- they will vote in "your voice, your vote." >> they have been voting for weeks already all across the country, diane. >> want to tell everybody that the polls have now closed in three more states including the critical battleground of ohio. we have just one projection to make here, let us tell you about it. it's west virginia, abc news based on exit polls is ready to

project the winner in west virginia is mitt romney. president obama was very unpopular in this state. >> no surprise there, diane. it's not even clear that the democratic senator from west virginia has voted for president obama. >> that's true. he wouldn't say if he was going to vote for the president or not. north carolina, we know this is still competitive. we do not have enough information and president obama won this. it was his narrowest victory in '08, 14,000 votes and so as we know, this is going to be a close one, and historically it's been hard for democrats to win there. now, ohio. >> that is the big one. >> ohio, ohio, we want to know what ohioens said today but we do not have enough information in at this point and will keep you up to date. >> no state has gotten more attention than the state of ohio. you would have thought they were running for governor there. it's gotten the most ads, had the most visits. i want to bring in ron

brownstein on this. you crunched all the numbers on ohio and you have a great phrase. it's been heartbreak hill for democrats, which is why president obama invested so much so early in that state. >> you can't underscore how unusual it is. it is a fire wall for a democrat, not a republican candidate. usually in close races, they have always leaned towards republican but the key die flamic in hoye a year when president obama is looking at a weak performance nationally among blue collar working class whites who used to anchor in ohio as well as wisconsin he is running significantly better nationally among those blue collar workers and mitt romney hasn't been able to get over that hill in the pre-election polling at least. >> to matt dowd and have a conversation. matt, you have been talking over and over again about how we're seeing a changing america tonight. we're watching big dynamics at work. what is ohio going to tell us about the big dynamic at work. >> to me ohio is so

representative of the cut as a whole. it's a state that's both a midwestern state and southern state, cincinnati is more like kentucky. the northern part is much more like michigan. where race plays out, black and white. the working class versus the royalty play out. it is a state a micro come of the country as a whole and i think as we watch ohio tonight as ohio goes because it's so representative of the country, ohio is going to really tell us in a small way what the whole country is doing. >> george, it was a state where one big issue really did define the race, and that is the auto bailout. some numbers from our exit polls talking about approval. 59% of voters in that state approve. 36% disapprove and how the vote broke out of that, as well. 75% going to president obama. big issue for him in that state. >> big issue and an issue that divides the two parties on their fundamental view of the relationship, the government to the economy and this explains

why late in the campaign, mr. romney put up a controversial ad about the movement of jobs or not, that's what the controversy is about, to build jeeps in china. right to the very end the romney campaign knew this was a very salient -- >> about chrysler. interesting thing happened today, chrysler gave all of their workers the day off to go vote. >> that's right because they said they are not moving those jobs. i want to go to jonathan karl now. we're talking 880,000 jobs by some estimates that relate to the auto industry in ohio. >> and, diane, this was an issue that the obama campaign started pummeling romney with almost from the day he clinched the nomination, there was an article he wrote, i'm sure you remember in "the new york times," an op-ed by mitt romney. the headline, "let detroit go bankrupt." now, romney didn't write the headline. he wrote the article. his headline was a new path

forward for detroit but a top romney adviser told me some time ago that if he loses this race, this may be the headline that cost him the presidency. >> okay, we want to head out just a second, i'll get right back to you because ron claiborne wants to weigh in. he's in ohio, he's in columbus right now and you are there at the secretary of state's office and we know every single vote, every polling place is being watched tonight, ron. >> reporter: they're being watched very closely and, diane, 1.6, 1.8 million voters actually voted early either by absentee ballots or in person going to early voting stations. those will be the first votes counted. we start to get those in about 20, maybe 30 minutes from now. we will get an indication, for example, if there is a high turnout in those early voting areas around cleveland. that would be very favorable to president obama. and meanwhile, as you were saying, the auto bailout has

figured prominently in this state something like one in eight jobs are involved in the auto industry and the obama campaign was able to really bludgeon mitt romney with that issue in recent days in a way magnifying romney's attack line saying that those jeeps would be built in china. the response was so overwhelming by the obama administration and auto executives it may have caused that line by governor romney to backfire on him. this state has reel by been the target of so many appearances by the candidates, really since the beginning of the year, there is a pittsburgh post-gazette cartoon i want to bring up if we can which very comically illustrates the importance of the state. shows a bunch of kids in a classroom looking at a map of the united states and the entire united states, it says "ohio" and one child says "i like the new map. it's a lot easier than memorizing the 50 states."

that really kind of wraps it up in terms of the importance for the candidates, again and again governor romney and the president were here as recently as yesterday. i talked to some ohio voters in the last couple of days about the saturation of coverage. if you watch tv in this state, you literally see one tv commercial after another for political candidates, they say they can't wait till those commercials are over. they will end today. >> a lot of people turned off their phones, as well, ron claiborne. want to go to donna brazile. you've run democratic campaigns. what you saw was a two-front war by the democrats here. ron claiborne talked about bludgeonen on the airwaves those commercials and also the president invested an awful lot of money on the ground in ohio in getting out his votes and had allies in organized labor >> that's right. look, they spent a lot of time identifying new voters. had a huge number of young people and african-americans and others register to vote. the organized labor community, that's a great deal, as well and turned out their vote in ohio.

>> all right. i'm going to interrupt for just a second. you hear that sound, that signals we're ready to project yet another state and here it is. it is south carolina, and abc news based on exit polling is ready to project mitt romney. even though he hasn't been there since the primaries. >> highly contested in the primaries, not the general election. let me bring that to nicolle wallace. this was something that the romney campaign was also not going to get caught short on, the ground game in the state of ohio and remember when president bush won it in 2004 and they say their turnout operation is bush's operation on steroids >> that's right. they wanted to go toe to toe with the obama machine, if you will, which was modeled after the bush machine which matt throuand i built in 2004. romney started with a deficit in ohio and they knew they had to dig out of the hole that was created by all those negative ads and also knew they were in an uphill battle.

wait, our last ad is going to take this on, they said, it's going to help correct it. they understood the stakes in ohio. if that single ad didn't correct what they understood to be a deficit with the voters in ohio, not just people who work in the auto industry but all ohioans care about the state's economy. that was so critically important and i think -- they're still hoping in these final hours that did the trick for them. >> let's go back to abc's david muir with the romney camp because you've been hearing some things on the ground there. david, tell us. >> reporter: yeah, it's really some extensive work we did with both ground games over the weekend, diane, the obama camp and romney camp and i can tell you in particular when you go into some of these ground game offices, we were in one in the suburbs of cleveland, you walk in and the phones are all going. they have automatic robo calls with people manned at each telephone looking for voters who leaned republican but who might not have gone out to the polls. it's a much more sophisticated

operation than they believe mccain had four years ago and also went out with a group of men who had given up their sunday, their cleveland browns game to go out and try to find some more votes for romney but the belief is that there are fewer than 2% in the final weekend before election day in ohio who had yet to make up their mind. one moment struck me in one suburb and neighborhood and there was a gentleman taking the groceries out of his car, his name was russ and the volunteers approached him and he said i haven't decided but i have enough material. i've been contacted by both campaigns. they left the driveway then i asked them where are you leaning? and he told me i'm leaning president obama. and it was interesting because he would fit the demographic we've seen romney doing better among white men, blue collar in some of these states, he's an electrician, a father but said he was leaning obama one word, bain and as you know the obama campaign really hammered mitt romney particularly in the state of ohio for months even before

the debate on bain capital. this is a man who fit into a demographic with better numbers for romney across the board but in ohio in particular he said he was leaning for the president, that's not diminishing their efforts on the ground game and continue them right up until today and say if they prove to be victorious in ohio and they believe it will it will be all about the ground game being vastly improved from four years ago, diane, george. >> and overcoming that saturation advertising you were talking about there, david muir. in fact, somebody said they were getting 18 phone calls a day and they just turn off their phones. every time it rings they just turn it off. i want to go back to cokie roberts. you're about to weigh in. >> it's interesting that russ was for president obama, if, in fact, it turns out he votes for him because what we're seeing getting back to math's overarching point this election is about a country that is vastly different from the country that most of us grew up in. white men in this electorate are

about 34% of the vote. look around the boardrooms of america and you would think it's 100% of the population and when you have a party where you have white men being the main focus and that has been the main focus of romney's campaign, it's just not enough of them to make it. so you need them to pull in some white women and some college educated women and we've got to see how that goes through the night. >> not enough to make it. back to matthew dowd but in the state of ohio, so many of them like what president obama did on the auto bailout. >> and the economic situation in ohio is actually blunted some of that situation that may be going on in the rest of the country. to me this election is going to be so much as we look forward and we look at the preliminary information is what does the country look like because there is a -- you can create a scenario where mitt romney does better and there's more conservatives vote this year, he does better among conservatives than bush did in 2004.

there is a higher share of white evangelicals and he still loses. that's what's amazing because the country in many ways has become polarized and is changing and that's the interesting thing to be watched as the evening goes on. >> i don't want to pile on white men. they'll get abused enough tonight. >> not by me. >> don't look at me. >> politico reported today that we already know before the returns come in that when the house democratic caucus meets in january, white males will be in a minority. it's never happened anything like that in american history. second, george, beginning in 1968 when the south moved firmly into the republican camp, the republican strategy for getting to 270 was simple, caray the 11 states of the old confederacy plus oklahoma and kentucky and most of the mountain states, new mexico and arizona pen pick off a few here or there and spend the gross national product of brazil to carry ohio then you get to 270.

ohio now as ron said is no longer -- it's the fire wall for the democrats and we keep saying the south. george, i think a third of southern voters live in the three coastal states of north carolina, virginia and florida, and they're not southern anymore in many ways, north carolina is almost defined in some ways by the research triangle in the raleigh-durham area. northern virginia has nothing to do with southern virginia and florida goes its own merry way. >> those are all close right now. >> we'll watch all these dynamics tonight, geographically and by gender, all of these questions about race and ethnicity but want to bring in barbara walters right now, as we know, founder and co-host of "the view" among many other roles at this network. you interviewed every president back to richard nixon, i believe and every first lady beyond that. tell us about the role of the first ladies because they were instrumental in hoye, too. they were there a lot there too. >> i can remember when there has

been an election in which the first -- the wives played the kind of role that they did. first of all, in humanizing their husbands, each of them appeared prime time at their husband's conventions saying in effect i love my husband, he's a good man so you should love him too and we were poor, let me tell you about our beginning and michelle obama saying we couldn't afford anything, ann romney saying i remember the first business. we didn't know that it would even succeed. and then they did all the television shows and there were certain shows, for example, like "the view" in which mitt romney did not want to appear because he said that he thought the participants were sharp-tongued. i don't know where he got that impression but mrs. romney did come on and both of them have been to the battleground states many times since the convention campaign. mrs. obama going 21 times, mrs. romney, 27 times they went to nevada, colorado, iowa, wisconsin, ohio, virginia and new hampshire and these are the ones who have been the

surrogates with mrs. obama, no, my husband is not a cold fish. we have dinner every night with the kids. you should know him. you should see that smile. i love him. you should love him. mrs. romney who is very close to her husband in the strategy, she plays a bigger role than just being the wife of, she is the one who said, he is not a stiff man. look at us. and, by the way, you talked about the grandchildren. there are 18 grandchildren. 13 of them are boys. >> all right. let us put that to the decision desk and see what that means. okay, barbara, stand by, team. we know you have so much more you're eager to say and we'll take a break at election night headquarters 2012 reporting on one of the great nights in democracy, one of the great privileges it is to vote as the polls still are open and a lot of this country projections come in and we have more, of course, to report on what social media

is saying when we come back. >> announcer: multitouchscenes courtesy of microsoft.

and we are back in times square, crossroads of america tonight for election night 2012, the results are coming in by the hour. a lot more coming up and we're seeing so much, katie couric, coming in already all across social media >> that's right. george and diane, you always remember your first time, voting, that is and a lot of people sent me pictures of them doing that very same -- that very thing today and i'll read a couple. here's a young lady from rockville, maryland, tweeted. voted for the first time in my life, "my dad 84 first time

voting, obama, 2012" then we have "voted before clinical, uva nursing student," and we have an emotional first-time voter. 27 years old, i just became a u.s. citizen this year and must say i was so proud to have the privilege to vote. i started crying as i was walking away from the polls. just whoever whelmed with emotions. #voteordie. and speaking of the youth vote, despite the fact that unemployment for those between 18 and 29 was up 12% in the month of october, by 61% of young voters still favor president obama. there was some concern about an enthusiasm gap because in 2008, 78% of young people said they were very enthusiastic about the president but only 48% said so this time around. so it will be very interesting to see if they actually turned out. >> actually go and vote. >> right. >> that is the big question. they turned out at about the

same rate as those four years ago. josh elliott. you have people gathering around. >> the anticipation is starting to build, people milling about and seeing on the giant screen surrounding us here in times square turning it into a virtual amphitheater. the votes coming in. as we project states, the excitement starting to build and i want to bring in first-time voters. we are joined by -- >> mary anne. >> where did you vote. >> new york. >> what was it like? >> it was very exciting and totally different, awesome. >> is it something you've looked forward to to this point? >> yes. >> are you -- what was the single most important thing to you tonight? what is it you want to see with your vote? >> i want to see that my vote, you know, made a difference and was heard and i hope that that will be. >> who did you vote for tonight? >> i voted for mitt romney.

>> one mitt romney vote, diane, and, george, again, we'll certainly be hearing from several more going both ways in a very divided electorate to be sure. we'll have thousands here by night's end. >> i want to bring it to donna brazile. a big concern in obama's camp for this entire campaign, huge youth turnout four years ago broke heavily towards president obama. they were worried they wouldn't show up this time around. >> they call it the sandwich program, george. they went back and, you know, recommunicated using social media. they really energized these young people this time around once again to come out in large numbers, i just received reports that people are still standing in line in virginia and one precinct over a thousand people still standing in line. >> even though the polls are closed. >> remember, you have the right to vote if you're in line before the polls close. 1,000 people near college campuses, so i think the campaign is confident that young people will come out. perhaps not as high but guess what, they're just looking to

get a strong turnout like 2008. >> the romney campaign didn't see the youth vote and mitt romney turned to those five sons of his and they turned to social media and i'm heartened. i know it's just one voter but i wished she lived in ohio but, you know, young people are the ones who really suffered the most in the economy as katie has said so they've tuned in getting their own information from very different places than older voters but the fact that they're open to both voters' messages and listening to the economic message i think is something -- you know, as again with the women's vote romney didn't need to close the youth gap. he just needed to tighten it in those battleground states and i think they're hopeful they were able to do that. >> but, nicolle, has the romney campaign seen that persuasion army that obama had going four years ago for the turnout, because as we know, the president decided not even to travel to some places today because he didn't want to disrupt his turnout operation. >> in stark contrast, as romney was still out on the trail late

last night and today so his turnout operation looks a little different but, again, he sought to build on -- he's a businessman so it was very deliberate. it was very mechanical and had all the structure of 2004 with the added technology that obviously we've seen lots of innovations. >> let's bring ron brownstein in on this from "the national journal." someplace where the romney campaign was playing catch-up but invested a lot in it. >> the generational story overlaps with the other big story which is a changing demography, it's the most diverse, over 40% of millennials are nonwhite. a majority of the kids born in the u.s. last year were nonwhite. that's why democrats are doing so well. on the other hand you have the baby boom moving into retirement becoming more republican. i think we'll see that again, 80% white and how we coalesce and kind of unify, harmonize the interests of these two very large and very divergent generations will be one of the political challenges we face, for years, the brown and the

gray. >> governor romney doing quite well with seen juror citizens. >> yeah and it's going to. >> the youth vote does appear to be turning out this year at the same level it did four years ago, so it is coming out, which we were not sure was going to happen. >> the seniors point is important because paul ryan was hammered over and over again about his medicare plan but romney did well with senior as cross the board. >> we'll take a break. thank you so much, cokie, ron. when we come back, 172 electoral votes are coming in as polling places close.

good afternoon, i'm cheryl jengs with this abc 7 news election day update. california may see a record number of voters casting ballots today. the secretary of state says there has been a high turnout since this morning.z8f+, an unprecedented 18 million people registered for the elections. half of them, nine million, plan to vote by mail this, could be the year for more people voting by mail in california.

supporters of prop 30 greeted governor brown as' rifed to vote this morning. proposition 30 seeks to raise money for california schools and universities by increasing sales tax a quarter percent ask increasing taxes on people making more than $250,000 a year. now, here is a hook at the other state propositions. proposition 32 preventing unions and comp raigss from divesting money from paychecks to be used for political funding. prop 36 revising california's three strikes law. and proposition 37 would add new food labeling requirements. proposition 38 is a competing tax measure to fund schools. now, here is a look at other state propositions, prop 32 preventing unions from deducting money from paychecks to be used for political funding. all right. if you have any trouble voting, we want to move on tho-to-this story. police in redwood city looking for two men they say try to

intimidate voters. neighbors report the two men with shaved heads wearing all black with dark glasses, sunglasses asking voters for id in front of the church. californians are not required to show ids when going to vote. the men left when police were called before 10:00 this morning. if do you have trouble voting you can report any problems at all to your polling place to the abc 7 news election hot line. the number son your screen. and we have that number posted for you on abc 7 news.com. you still have three hours to vote in the bay area. we encourage to you do so. when polls close tonight at 8:00, abc 7 news will be live with the first returns, results of abc 7 news.com, live updates on facebook.com and through twitter on abc 7 >> announcer: this is an abc

news special, "your voice, your vote," election night 2012 live from abc news election night headquarters in times square, new york, now reporting, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and we are back and a big crossroads, 172 electoral votes in the polls that just closed including florida and new hampshire but it is, of course, very early but i want to run through for you right now what we are ready to project, the abc news decision desk based on exit polling is ready to project that barack obama, the president, has won in illinois, of course, it's his home state, 60% of the vote last time. in massachusetts, president obama has won there, it's a solid blue state, george. >> no question about it. mitt romney's home state but did not win it and also, diane, a key senate race elizabeth warren

taking on scott brown, the marquee race tonight. >> abc news ready to project maryland for president obama. that's his fifth best state four years ago, no surprise there. oklahoma, it is a solid red state, that was john mccain's best state back in '08 and governor romney is the projected winner there. in maine, we have president obama projected to win in maine. >> also big senate race in maine, the republican senator olympia snowe decided she was going to retire, independent angus king, a former governor has run and won, an independent but he will caucus with the democrats, a pickup for the democrats. we'll talk more about that in just a bit. >> let's move on to rhode island, because we're ready to project president obama has won in rhode island. he is the projected winner based on exit polling there. it was his third best state four years ago, and he beat john mccain, 2-1. there delaware, the vice president's home state, projected for president obama,

district of columbia, possibly the bluest territory in this country, president obama has won there. >> right on the dividing line of north and south. one of the things we're seeing if we look at this map right now, we do see this red/blue divide. those coming in solid blue in the north, mitt romney winning those solid red states across the south. >> and now some other big contested states coming in. new hampshire four electoral votes but very important. we do not have enough information to project at this point. we do not have enough information in pennsylvania. we know that governor romney was campaigning there right until the end, and also florida, the biggest battleground, 29 electoral votes and not enough information but the polls have closed. >> voting continues, the big states are coming in. >> announcer: this is an abc news special, election 2012. >> are you fired up? are you ready to go?

>> i believe in america. i believe in you. >> announcer: the speeches are over, the campaigning done, tonight across america, your voice has been heard. your vote's being counted so who will win this crucial election for president? now the abc news political team takes you everywhere to chicago inside the obama campaign and boston behind the scenes with romney, to the heated battleground states across the country where this election will be decided and our team tracking your vote everywhere, in the crossroads of the world with the crowds in times square and with our partners from univision in miami, plus abc's barbara walters, katie couric and our powerhouse team telling you who's winning and why on this historic night, election night 2012. the stakes so high. the race so close, america's next president decided tonight. it's "your voice, your vote," once again from abc news election headquarters in times square, new york, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos.

>> and the polils have closed i 25 states this country, halfway there, george. let us show you, people are still voting, 25 other states out there and we are watching them. we don't see a lot of lines there but we know throughout this day we've seen so many people waiting for hours and hours just to vote. >> one of the things that makes this election different, diane, is that people are not only voting right now, they have been voting for weeks, jon karl has been following this early voting are to us with new information now. >> one of the key states is florida when it comes to the early vote and see an advantage once again for president obama in the early vote by seven points. but that is significantly once again less than he had last time around. but here's a very important point as we are watching the raw vote come in in a lot of these states with big early votes, especially florida and ohio. those get counted first and those votes are going to favor president obama. he simply does much better among early voters. i went back, george, to 2008 and

looked at the returns in ohio as they were coming in. at 8:30, four years ago, president then senator obama had a 33-point lead over john mccain in the state of ohio in the raw vote. he did not win ohio by 33 points but by 5. be careful as you watch those early return, that includes primarily early votes. >> we'll put up on the bottom of our screen here the voting as it comes in including popular votes but look very carefully at the number of precincts reporting in because that will tell the tale of how far that vote has come. i want to give you a sense of our election headquarters here because we are out in force tonight. we not only have our team of analysts, you've just seen jon karl there, cokie roberts, ron brownstein, we have our polling desk behind them and we have pierre thomas standing by our chief justice correspondent and as you know he'll stand sentry

at the polls. katie couric has been weighing in from our social media headquarters and over here, our incredible team, the combined experiences incalcuable on election night and with presidents in close races and they'll be telling us a lot about this moment as they witnessed it coming up. >> our team in the big battleground states, amy robach covering virginia as the vote trickles in, what we have now of the vote, 13% of the vote has come in so far, right now governor romney has the lead in virginia, but, amy, we know this one will be close. >> reporter: it's absolutely going to be close. this is a purple state. we know there are certain areas of the state that are clearly red and that's the southern parts of the state, the southwestern coal country and southeastern parts where you have a strong military base in places like norfolk and virginia beach, romney camp was really trying to create the enthusiasm in those areas, get the vote out

and, of course, all eyes are falling on those purple counties, the exburbs of the washington, d.c. area, loudon county, prince william county. they essentially turned the election for barack obama in 2008 for the first time in 44 years where you have a vastly changing population in those purple areas where originally you had southerners, you had conservatives living in those areas, you had a huge influx of latinos, of college-educated women, also some northeastern transplants coming in changing the entire demographic of this really vastly growing population that changed the vote and swayed things obama's way but a lot of these voters are independents and that's what the romney camp was hoping to get them involved to get them out to the polls and that may be why we're seeing some of the numbers we're seeing, maybe not seeing a lot of precincts reporting from northern virginia, a huge stronghold for barack obama. >> we have a map that proves that point and show all our viewers that and zoned in on

virginia and you do see down here a lot of these counties down in the southwest have been colored in red, already, for governor romney, but up here in the northeast, those places where president obama might be stronger, the vote just not in yet, diane. >> to matt dowd because as you look at virginia, old dominion, what are you seeing so far? you're looking at all the early tea leaves here. >> the interesting thing both in virginia and ohio and the preliminarile information that we have nationally but looking at those two states is the theory of the race by the romney campaign is the electorate was going to look like 2004. the partisan break down would look like 2004 and the public polls in ohio especially had the president leading and in virginia it had it much more competitive than they wanted. when you look at the composite of the electorate, it looks not like 2004, it doesn't look like

2004 so they'll have to do better than they thought. if that's the case among republicans, democrats and independents because their theory of the race right now, it doesn't match. >> we'll come back to all these big demographics later but jake tapper who is with the president in chicago. what do we know about what the president is doing right now, jake? >> reporter: well, a little while ago he left the fairmont hotel where he was watching returns and he went to his home where he is having dinner with his family, the president has spent a lot of time doing satellite tv interviews in these battleground states. he's done 16 total you were talking with nicolle earlier about, the best way to use a candidate's time whether it is to go into these battleground states to have rallies on the last day or to do other things such as satellite tv interview, satellite radio interviews, the theory of the obama campaign is that going into these states not only gives you only one bang for the buck, for instance, going into ohio as opposed to doing 16 tv interviews with different

markets also because they are so committed to this intense ground operation, this get out the vote operation of door knocks and phone calls, getting people to the polls and i'm getting their friends and family members to the polls, their fear was having an event in a state like ohio in this last minute would take away all these volunteers they need to be getting out every last democratic voter, obama supporter, instead, they would be doing advance for the president on the trip so that's one of the reasons why the president was doing all these satellite radio interviews up until recently when he went to dinner and why he didn't campaign today in person in these big very highly contested states such as ohio, diane. >> one of the big prizes of the night, the state of florida, 29 electoral votes and the polls closed at 8:00. a lot of the vote has come in because of that vote. almost half of the vote in, 46% of the vote is in so far and you see what a close race right there, 49% for president obama, 51% for governor romney so far, of course, this is a must-win

state for governor romney. want to go to abc's cecilia vega in tampa tonight. >> reporter: good evening from the university of south florida. this is going to be the biggest watch party in this area. this is a place where millions of votes are up for grabs. just the other day one of the headlines in the newspapers here called this area the pathway to the presidency. so let me tell you a little about this place. it's known as the i-4 corridor, 132-mile stretch of freeway that runs from tampa right here where this crowd is swelling all the way to orlando and this is the dividing line in florida here, we've got reds in the north, republicans, democrats traditionally to the south. this is the battleground that florida has been talking about that we've been hearing about, the micro come of america, one of the biggest votes out here, senior citizens, 18% of floridians are over the age of 65. it is the highest population of that kind in the country.

so one of the places we visited in the days we've been here driving up and down was a retirement center, the home of 10,000 people, senior living facility and met a woman out swimming one day with friends and she tells us she's supporting president obama because of his health care plan, she's supporting him because she wants to see medicare stay the way it is and she told me "i've never prayed so much in my life that he will win." and as she's telling me this tells you about the divide in the state right now, another woman came up to her and started screaming, mitt romney, mitt romney. and we spoke to another man in the seniors facility and he told us i don't think the last four years have done anything to improve anyone's life. diane and george, this is just a sign of not only how divided this state is how divided life is all around this country right now and really what a challenge it's going to be for the next president to unite, not just florida but the rest of the country. >> and the health care issue, the medicare issue is a big turnaround, has been, at least,

in the early polling before tonight among those 65 or older. a turnaround for mitt romney. >> we dug into the exit polls, 65 or older of the state of florida and so far they're breaking pretty big for mitt romney, 58%-42%. you see it right there. i want to bring it to ron brownstein because, ron, as diane mentioned, medicare was the big issue that president obama advertised in the state of florida. they made the point that paul ryan's budget would end medicare as we know it. their phrase. it doesn't seem 59 least according to the exit polling to cut too hard. >> we've seen white seniors moving in a republican direction in the last several cycles and if the ryan budget and moving medicare with seniors overwhelmingly opposed was not enough to move them back it really is a generational realignment of older seniors toward the republican party. >> i see you shaking your head, nodding your head because this has been an article of faith.

>> particularly democrats in congress as you well know and then they thought this would be the place they could just pummel the republicans and it really -- if we keep coming back to this what we're seeing here is not necessarily an issues election. what we're seeing is an american change of vast proportions and these older people are not worrying as much about their medicare as they are about having a more liberal activist government that is -- that represents minorities and young people and to some degree women. >> okay. we do have some more clues from the exit polls. we'll give them to you after a short break here at abc news election headquarterses. .

>> announcer: election night 2012, "your voice, your vote," brought to you by mass mutual. everyone in the nicu, all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child that needs you every moment. i wouldn't trade him for the world. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders

so they matter most to us. if you're caring for a child with special needs, our innovative special care program offers strategies that can help. [ coughs ] [ baby crying ] ♪ [ male announcer ] robitussin® liquid formula soothes your throat on contact and the active ingredient relieves your cough. robitussin®. don't suffer the coughequences™. and the active ingredient relieves your cough. we'rwith questions fromtump sombing elections.kies do you know where your polling place is? maybe somewhere around my house. mine's just, right over that way. well you can find out exactly where it is using bing elections. it's a good day for politics. which way do you lean politically? conservative. republican. well, using the bing news selector you can find news from whichever way you lean. (together) social on this side, financial. which party is currently predicted to win a majority in the senate? the republicans? would you make a bet on that? no. are you chicken? sometimes life can be well, a little uncomfortable.

but when it's hard or hurts to go to the bathroom, there's dulcolax stool softener. dulcolax stool softener doesn't make you go, it just makes it easier to go. dulcolax stool softener. make yourself comfortable. >> announcer: "your voice, your vote," election night 2012. now diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and it's so good to have you back with us again here in times

square as the crowds begin to file in, looking up at the big jumbo screen here and i want to give you a look at this map here on our floor because at this moment polls have closed in 25 states, half the country, 12 states we have projected based on exit polling, a winner, and also the district of columbia and it's five for governor romney, seven for president obama, plus d.c., george. >> no big surprises there yet although there is one pickup for the republican, remember four years ago president obama won the state of indiana. mitt romney took it pretty handily tonight. >> david muir at romney headquarters in boston. have you seen any of the big advisers? are they coming out to talk to you? what are they saying, david? >> reporter: the advisers haven't come out but craig romney has, one of the five sons up on the stage right now talking actually about his mother right now. but, craig obviously a huge supporter of his father on the campaign trail speaking spanish

in ads for his father, well, here's what we know about the family. they're at the hotel right next door, the five sons, i've got a number on those grandchildren. i promised i'd get it to you after "world news," 16 of the 18 grandchildren are here and i believe the two not here are tagg's two infants, he has twins so understandable why they're not celebrating. on the menu it appears to be pasta because mitt's body man, what we call him, the guy who travels with him often and takes great snapshots and helps us out covering the campaign took a snapshot and appears to be pasta on the menu though i'm not sure if that's just for the kids and the plane landed after those two last-minute stops in ohio and pennsylvania and know that the governor had a snack, one of his favorites, peanut butter and honey sandwich which you both know a lot about already so that's the update on the family. >> we are covering this campaign really up close and personal,

david. we know that the governor has lucky milk shakes and the president plays a lucky game of basketball. we've been spending a lot of time with these two candidates. >> and continuing to learn so much more about the country tonight. i want to go back to matthew dowd who worked as a political strategist. nine out of ten we knew would vote for mitt romney and nine out of ten democrats for president obama. you dug deeper in these election exit polls and found a real ideological split and polarization of america right now. >> last ten elections since 1976 when we had good data and look at the preliminary numbers we have nationally. this is the highest percentage of conservatives that have voted in ten elections in this election. more so than when president bush won in 2004. more so when reagan won in 1984 but simultaneously the highest percentage of liberals that voted.

what that means the country is getting pushed more and more to the right and the moderates is the smallest number it's ever been. >> you wrote someone has to broker a peace agreement. >> the day after the election. >> the day after. >> because the divide is so great and we'll learn there's so many divides in the country, somebody will have to do that. both candidates appealed to the furthest edge of this campaign and somebody ha to decide it. >> we're ready to make joer projection, the sound that signals it. it is connecticut and president obama, according to our exit polling, is the projected winner in connecticut. again, george, not a surprise. >> the split continues. we'll watch a senate race there, as well. linda mcmahon from the world wrestling federation, spent $100 million over the last two campaigns to win a senate seat, try to. up against chris murphy, the democrat. that one is quite close. we'll have more on that when we come back >> that's right, when the polls

are going to be closing and still more states, thousands of people, we want to stress this, are still going to the polls, especially out west to cast your ballots and, of course, it's been long workdays for people out west as they head in. some of them tugging their children along and we have seen it all day long, i still remember the woman who went out and she was in labor and she went to the polls and then she went to the hospital. that is the degree of dedication out there to get to these polls, the kind of civics lesson only five minutes apart, jonathan karl. please send your tweets and e-mails to him, would you please. we'll be back with more election results. election 2012 continues. last thanksgiving, about 2 million people tried to deep-fat-fry their turkey. 15 succeeded in setting their houses on fire.

at christmas, there was a lot of driving over the river and through the woods. and a little bit of skidding on the ice and taking out grandma's garage door. so while you're celebrating, allstate will be standing by. trouble never takes a holiday. neither should your insurance. that's allstate's stand. are you in good hands? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ girl ] hey! [ both laugh ] ♪

>> announcer: it's like the morning after the super bowl for politics and that's why first thing in the morning america turns first to -- >> george. >> george. >> george. >> to break it down may by play only on "good morning america" tomorrow on abc. >> red states, blue states. no matter where you are tonight we all have to deal with the workplace. >> is there sex in the office? >> now shhh, it's the workplace confidential. >> watch out. good evening, i'm cheryl jenning was this abc 7 news lerks day update. here in california the closely watched race is probably proposition 30. supporters held a last minute pep rally this morning, greeting the governor in the oakland hills. the measure would add a quarter cent to sales tax and increase kachl taxes on individuals that make more

than $250,000 a year. governor brown says fit fails california schools will be in big trouble. >> no on proposition 30 means billions of dollars out of the schools and universities. that is done. a yes vote means billions of dollars into the schools. >> prop 30 opponents say it's too expensive and will drive business out of california. >> i think voters are seeing through rhetoric of brown's proposition 30 seeing it for a massive tax increase. >> both sides agree it's going to be a tight race and say we'll likely not know the outcome until tomorrow at earliest. now a look at the role social media is playing. >> social media has been a huge part of the election up until final hours, nobody knows that better than folks at twitter. take a look. they call it twin dex, tracking tweets about the president and governor romney. it's creators say it's been a pretty good mirror of

traditional polls like gallup. last night the president only had a slight lead but this afternoon, widened to 10 points and now has a 15-point lead on the twitter board. there are other candidates in this race, one is trending on twitter here now. roseanne barr tweeted vote for me, i will not ruin america. and for the record her ex-husband, tom arnold says he's not voting for her. you can keep tabs on all races tonight using our abc 7 news ipad app which you can get free. now, back to you. >> thank you so much. now, sandhya patel joins with us the -- with the accu-weather forecast. >> it was a record-breaking day for election day. looking at live doppler 7 hd we do have fog approaching the coast tonight. our own doppler on mount st. helena will be tracking major changes heading into thursday. here are the high temperatures for the day. oakland airport, 82 degss and

80s in redwood city. these are highs. gilroy, shattered it's record, 91 today a new record for the day. 84 santa rosa. 78 degrees in antioch. it was warm, but a thing of the past. taking a look at the accu-weather forecast, cooler testimony, cold showers thursday. and showers on friday could seen a thunderstorm possibility. you can see temperatures trending. frosty cold mornings sunday and monday. prepare for changes. cheryl? >> thank you. >> and here is a look at other state propositions. prop 32 preventing unions and corporations from deducting money from paychecks to be used for political funding. prop 30 repeels the death penalty. and and and the tax measure to fund schools, more than 1200 people in oakland are now u.s. citizens with the right to vote today. they were naturalized this morning at paramount theater

in oakland. the 1255 people came from 104 countries and several of them told us that they are so excited to vote. this is a huge emotional day for them. and you still have about two and a half hours to vote in the bay area. now, polls close at 8:00 tonight. i hope you know that. abc 7 news will be live with first returns and we have reporters posted everywhere. if you have problems you can call our hot line. i'm going put that number up for you later on. we're tweeting out information. you can also get retime results at abc 7 news.com. and live updates at facebook.com/abc 7 news and through twitter on abc 7 news bay area, hope you'll tweet me at cheryl abc 7. our next abc 7

>> announcer: "your voice, your vote," election night 2012, live from times square, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and good evening, once again, from here in times square, and it is the crossroads of the world, and it is election headquarters for election 2012. i am here at the big map to tell you we have three more projected winners to give you right now. from georgia, we are ready to project based on exit polls that governor romney has won in georgia which has voted republican six times in the last seven elections. alabama, down in the south again, governor romney has, once again, become the projected winner and in new jersey, president obama is the projected winner tonight. it was devastated, as you know, by that superstorm sandy and

still awaiting word how many people in the storm zone could actually show up. but we are ready to project that the winner tonight in new jersey is president obama, george. >> so we still see the north is going to president obama, the south is going to governor romney. so far just about everything as expected right now. see the states filled in that have been called already but we'll keep our eye all night long on these big battlegrounds where the campaigns have invested so much time and energy and money. the big states that are going to tip the balance tonight, the vote continues to come in. i want to go to ohio. you see it on the map right now if we can zone in on the board. we see about 20% of the vote has now come in ohio. president obama has 59% of that so far. governor romney, 40% and jon karl, i want to go to you. so much of that lead is based on the early vote that was made before today. >> yeah, that's exactly right and, remember, i said at this time exactly four years ago, obama had a 33-point lead over john mccain. that lead is now as big this time around. in ohio what we know is the

early vote was even more than it was four years ago, they don't break it down by party so don't know exactly who voted but the president has not built up the kind of lead that he had four years ago in the early vote. >> still ahead but not as much as he had four years ago, mean while down south in florida, one of the biggest surprises on the board, 29 electoral votes in florida, we all remember what happened in 2000. let's see what's happening right now you see 56% of the vote has been reported so far and it is close, 51% for president obama, 48% for governor romney but nicolle wallace, who, of course, worked for the mccain/palin campaign four years ago i know you've been talking to the romney campaign. they look at these numbers and are not discouraged. >> they say there's still two-hour lines in gop counties and say they're feeling --ry, we have breaking news. >> we do have breaking news. i love that everyone knows to stop and we're filling in the south. another projection to make. it is in tennessee.

governor romney, our projected winner. it is, again, a very red state coming in for governor romney. >> nicolle, you followed that chime well. go back to the point. >> i'm easily trained. so they feel good about that i-4 corridor. they say in the raw votes and i know from jon karl they're not to be trusted but are an early indicator, a canary in the mine and are ahead in those raw votes in the counties they must win and feel good -- we talk about ohio but if mitt romney doesn't win virginia and florida, there won't be anything to talk about ohio, it won't matter. if he loses virginia or florida so they're watching those same counties in virginia and feel good about northern virginia, they feel like the margin hasn't gotten away from them and feel good about the rest of the state. >> donna brazile, you spent several months in florida for al gore back in 2000. what are you seeing in the returns so far? >> when you say florida in close, i get a little nervous but what i'm looking at right now is in the southern part of the state, the democratic

stronghold in proud, dade county, democrats are performing very well. we're doing good in the so-called i-4 corridor, looking at duval, jacksonville. if we can maintain the numbers that we have right now in that part of the state, i think it's going to be a narrow victory but it's going to be very, very close and i think president obama can still keep florida in his -- >> if president obama wins florida, he wins the night. that is a key to 270. he doesn't need it but if he wins it he's almost guaranteed it. let's go to virginia right now. take a look. 26% of the vote has come in so far. governor romney opened up a fairly big lead right there, 57%-42% and dig farther down to see where the vote is coming in. you see in the state of virginia and, cokie, let me bring this in to you. you still see governor romney has a lot of strength in the southwest part of the state but you also see and maybe this is a bit of surprise, you look up north in the northeast part and see a lot of red up there in northern virginia. that's where president obama has to be strong. >> that is very surprising, and

something that the president's team has to be very concerned about because virginia, as nicolle just said, ohio doesn't matter unless romney carries virginia. and if he's doing well in the northern part of the state, then that means that he could win virginia and that's a very big win for him, and that's surprising, because in all this demography we've been talking about all night this is a part of the state where it's high tech and very educated, there are a lot of women and there are a lot of women that are concerned about social issues. >> it goes to the question, diane, you asked before, i mean, you have president obama here trying to straddle not one but two tightropes, mobilizing very different coalitions in sunbelt states like virginia and florida where he's relying on the new democratic collision of a growing minority population and these upscale whites and then in the midwest where that -- where those voters aren't as prevalent trying to reassemble the old

democratic collision, the new deal collision centered on working class whites so you have two different -- two different paths that he is trying to piece together to get to 270. >> that's right. and there is -- >> one county to watch, loudoun county up north, bellwether county and right now romney holding a slight lead even in loudoun county. slightly early returns. >> so a true swing county and these are young folks too. >> this is not, you know, a bunch of people worried about young people taking their medicare check as way from them. these are the young people. >> okay, we'll keep track of this. let's go back to josh elliott down in times square. and, again, so many people have been gathering there. we remember the thousands from four years ago, josh? >> reporter: we are certainly on our way there tonight, diane. the crowd is starting to well. again, numbers continue to pour in and talking about florida, what a key win it would be for either campaign and we have with us now some voters who really represent a micro come i think of the state and myriad issues

faced there. joining me is beth from vero beach, florida, and, beth, again, there were so many reasons to have voted for one or the other. who did you vote for and why? >> i voted for romney. i'm a christian and i am pro-life and i like his stand against abortion. >> reporter: so social issue perhaps carrying your vote. i also want to ask -- our experts have been saying in a lot of way married white women may be the key demographic that could swing this one way or another. in the state of florida, especially in these last months of the campaigns as they begin to bombard with ads how coveted did you feel? >> oh, you know, i don't know if i felt coveted or not. i know i needed to vote the way i feel strongly. also as a business owner, i feel like the economy is where i need to be -- where romney is also, has the same feeling so i feel like that's what i needed to do. >> reporter: we thank you for standing out here. i want to bring you in anderson. anderson, i know you voted for president obama. >> yes, i did.

>> reporter: and, in fact, it's something -- it was something of an epithet that the mitt romney campaign used over years in attacking obama. it was obama care but, in fact, that was the reason that he got your vote. >> yeah, i have private insurance but i had an aunt who passed three years ago on thanksgiving and struggled with breast cancer and at a point she didn't have medical insurance and at points she did so i have an emotional connection to those out there searching for that help they need whether government assistance or somebody being kind enough to help them pay for private insurance and obama care from the government -- i love it. >> reporter: we're seeing the numbers come in. it's a neck and neck race. did you have a sense of that with your family and friends as you were casting your vote, did you have a sense of how close it would be? >> i have a feeling it's going to be a good one like a national championship game but politics not football. >> reporter: there's so many stories to be told and we've just begun. back upstairs to you. >> like a national football game.

again, 37 degrees out there where you are, josh, so thanks to everybody. but let's check in on florida, should we? >> 57%, and president obama holding on to that three points, 51%-48%. >> precision tweeting. back over to our headquarters and katie couric. >> i think turnout is anecdot anecdotally appears to be high in the state of florida if the long lines are any indication. we're getting photos from voters like this one, anthony posting long voting lines in cape corporal, coral, a three-hour wait. 66% of all hispanic voters favor president obama and coco in florida tweeting me, obama supports fair immigration policy and embraces hispanic diversity, e.g., sotomayor and the overall sentiment for the candidates seem very evenly split.

dead even over the last seven days with 50% positive, 50% negative for both president obama and governor romney. >> right down the middle. okay, katie couric, thanks very much. of course, the white house, the big story tonight control of the senate also at stake tonight. we have news there, as well. it's in the state of connecticut. congressman chris murphy has defeated linda mcmahon, a close election. we'll project that chris murphy will defeat linda mcmahon, her second run. to jon karl. she spent $100 million. combine that hold for the democrats with the pickup of angus king in maine and looking much more difficult for the republicans to take control of the senate. >> yeah, because now they have to have a net gain of five to guarantee control and just lost one prime chance they had to win there in connecticut. they can still do it but that path is really narrow. watch now massachusetts. i just took a look at where the presidential vote is there. not surprisingly barack obama is ahead by 20 points, the question is scott brown, the republican senator from massachusetts, can

he hang on in a state that is going so overwhelmingly for the president? if they lose there that's another republican loss and then you can pretty much say takeover is impossible. >> a see a hand weighing in. i referred to ron brownstein as the human google search. so he'll tell us something. >> and connecticut really underscores why it's so difficult for scott brown. we're seeing the lowest level of swift ticket voting between the president and senate in decades. chris murphy win as cording to the exit poll roughly nine in ten voters who voted for barack obama. makes it very difficult for republicans to win in blue states in the senate races and -- >> that will be a problem. because we'll get into hot senate races in north dakota, montana, nebraska which are currently held by democrats where the president is likely to lose. >> chris murphy won even though linda said, it's okay, you vote for president obama but vote for me, as well. >> she has run so hard, so long, with so much money.

and, again, we will come back with so much more as we continue telling the story of "your voice, your vote," your decision when we come back to abc's election night 2012. stay with us. >> announcer: multi touch screens, courtesy, microsoft. [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ]

[ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it... in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. great taste. mmm... [ male announcer ] sounds good. it's amazing what soup can do. [ male announcer ] sounds good. we'rwith questions fromtump sombing elections.kies do you know where your polling place is? maybe somewhere around my house. mine's just, right over that way. well you can find out exactly where it is using bing elections. it's a good day for politics. which way do you lean politically? conservative. republican. well, using the bing news selector you can find news from whichever way you lean. (together) social on this side, financial. which party is currently predicted to win a majority in the senate? the republicans? would you make a bet on that? no. are you chicken? it's called passion. and it's not letting up anytime soon. at unitedhealthcare insurance company, we understand that commitment. so does aarp, serving americans 50 and over for generations. so it's no surprise millions have chosen an aarp dicare supplement insurance plan,

insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, it helps cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. to find out more, call today. five days later, i had a massive heart attack. bayer aspirin was the first thing the emts gave me. now, i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. [ woman ] learn from my story.

>> announcer: abc news live coverage of election night 2012. here again, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and we are back here at abc news election headquarters. right now in times square, i want to bring you up to date because the polls have closed in 26 states and the district of columbia and so far we have projected eight for governor romney, nine for president obama and the district of columbia. >> no surprises yet in the presidential race. the big battleground states are still out. we are here with our entire team of experts and analysts and have our reporters out in the battleground states and also right now have president obama's senior adviser david axelrod working the white house, worked on both his campaign, one of his longest serving advisers. david, thanks for joining us tonight. what's the most encouraging news you've seen tonight? >> well, i see several of them in the state of ohio when we looked at the early vote which is really what was first available to us we were winning

578% of t-- 57% of the vote in hamilton county. 56% in franklin county and 70% cuyahoga county, 2008 level numbers for us so we exceeded our own expectations in those areas. in virginia, you look at the suburbs around richmond like chesterfield and see mitt romney underperforming, places where he needs to really roll up the numbers in order to win the state -- >> let me stop you right there. let me stop you on virginia. we're looking at the virginia map right now, and it looks like president obama is having a little more difficulty up in the northern part of the state than i would have expected. >> well, george, first of all, as you know, that vote is coming in slowly because the lines were so long up there but everything we see gives us encouragement in virginia. we always said it would be a narrow race, but we don't see -- we think we're hitting our targets. we don't believe he's hitting hissing its and look in florida,

a state several weeks ago the romney campaign suggested was in tow, they are with more than half the vote counted they're trailing there, so, you know, we're very enurge coulded by what we see following the model of what we believed would happen tonight and think it will be a great night for the president. >> david, it's diane. when is the last time you spoke to the president? what did he say to you? >> i just e-mailed with him today because we've been doing other stuff but i just came off four days on the trail with him. look, i think he feels we ran a good campaign and made the case he wanted to make and had tremendous crowds in the last four days and gave the final speech he wanted to give, and, you know, at some point you say, we did what we can do, and now it's up to the people and he has great faith in the american people and i think that will be vindicated tonight. >> as we know, governor romney prepared one speech and we're told it was a victory speech, the president prepared two. what about governor romney's

confidence? >> well, i mean, i can't speak for governor romney's confidence. you know, our confidence is based in data, it's based in, you know, early vote numbers, it's based in the things that we can see and we can prove to ourselves. their confidence appears to be in some hidden mystical force that's going to materialize at the last minute and push him over the finish line and i think as time wears on this evening, that will be exposed. >> david, one question i have, as you -- because you've spent so much time with president obama, is this the campaign that president obama wanted to run? you know, you've probably seen a lot of the commentary out there that he's been something of an unhappy warrior and was much more enthused by that hope and change campaign of 2008. >> let me tell you something, george, as i said, i've been traveling with him constantly for the last four days, and he is -- and he was upbeat and making the case about what

america can be if we do the things we need to do to rebuild the middle class, to make the investments in education and in energy and innovation, the kinds of things that will guarantee a greater future for the country and a greater future for the middle class. this is what he believes in. he wants everybody to get a fair shake and a fair shot and everybody to play by the same rules, and he thinks that's how we build a strong economy. this has been true as long as i've known him, and i've known him for 20 years, so the message is consistent, the cause goes on, it's what animated him from the day he got into public life and he thinks that's a worthy fight. >> one more note, david, because we've seen the president out there with bruce springsteen in this roller coaster trajectory of the race and saw bruce springsteen say, i'm a little freaked out by that first debate. what did the president say about that and what turned him around after that? >> well, you know, i would like to say just wanted to add an element of suspense but i don't

think that's plausible. look, the president -- the president looked at the film. he understood that he hadn't made the case the way he wanted to make it. nobody challenges himself more than the president does. he didn't need anybody else to tell him he needed to bring it the next time and he did and the next two debates were real triumphs for him. so, you know, no one is infallible. people have bad days. he had one then, he came back strong. i think it stemmed whatever momentum governor romney had and you'll see the results of that in part reflected tonight. >> finally, david, we have to go because we have another projection but quickly i think you said you'd shave off your mustache if president obama lost the state of pennsylvania. how are you feeling about that tonight? >> first tell me what your next projection is. [ laughter ] >> it's not pennsylvania. >> i -- i -- look, george, as long as you've known me i've had

this mustache. my wife has never seen me without the mustache. i wouldn't have wagered it if i wasn't absolutely confident. it will be on my face next week, i guarantee you. >> we are ready to project mississippi, the state of mississippi, six electoral votes and governor romney has won mississippi by the way, jimmy carter was the last democrat to win there in 1976, george. >> that's right, and, we'll look at that map. one of the stories of the night. red in the south, blue in the north. >> and it has been this way ever since 1964 and, again, sorting out of the two parties, one solid democratic south became the one solid republican south. and what we're seeing tonight, i think, again, is that that was not a fluke in 2008 when barack obama expanded the battlefield in a way that was disconcerting to republicans in places like north carolina and indiana, he's

lost indiana, north carolina is still competitive, but we're seeing and if you believe in competition this is a good thing, we're seeing that more of america is competitive in a way than had been in recent election sdmrz we talked and we'll come back later and you and matt and ron brownstein can discuss this, but we talked about all the divides in the country generational, gender, we have talked about race and ethnicity, you keep saying, you have said over and over again differences are not a crisis, differences are not a crisis. >> again, if we were in the state of race relations in the 1960s and the map there would be more alarming than i think it is tonight because race relations are so vastly improved. one of the divides that puzzles me, i want to go back to something matt dowd said in the evening, conservatives come in, who are these conservatives? we had a recent poll, i believe it was a gallup poll that showed that self-identified

conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals in this country, 2-1. hard to square that with the electoral map we're seeing. >> matthew? >> i think what's happened is there's now more liberals in the country, there's more conservatives and dwindling share of the moderates which now many dids can appeal to, and i think the problem that republicans that are entering into as we approach this divide, the divide in the country is actually benefiting the democrats because of demography because of the changing shape of the country and it's no longer as white as it was, more female, less religious than it was and all of those dynamics that developed over the last 30 or 40 years have helped the democrats win elections. >> but the country is more diverse, the country is more tolerant. the country is changing and that's a good thing because that's what we celebrate in america. we celebrate diversity. in all of its forms. >> it also is possible that some conservatives are ideological conservatives, but operational liberals, they talk like

jeffersonian, want to be governed by hamilton ians. >> i'm willing to conjecture mitt romney wins conservatives by as big or bigger margin than president bush won them in 2004. i'm willing to conjecture. >> but he does not have a mustache to shave off. >> i was going to say. we'll come back because everybody here is ready to wrestle with these big dynamics in the country tonight. we're going to take a break right now. coming up, there are so many polling places still open. last voters in line, 14 more states closing their polls. colorado and wisconsin are among them. key battleground states. >> they sure are. right now colorado is still tied. wisconsin, the home of the vice presidential candidate on the republican side paul ryan, he fought hard here, spent more than $4 million in this congressional district. we'll have all the latest on all of the battleground states, abc news election night 2012 continues, both coming in, a lot of big states coming up.

avings, not in this economy. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in. so we went to fidelity. we looked at our family's goals and some ways to help us get there. they helped me fix my economy, the one in my house. now they're managing my investments for me. and with fidelity, getting back on track was easier than i thought. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get one-on-one help from america's retirement leader. ♪ ...mom's smartphone... dad's tablet... or lauren's smartphone... at&t has a plan built to help make families' lives easier. introducing at&t mobile share. one plan lets you share data on up to 10 devices with unlimited talk and text. add a tablet for only $10 per month. at&t.

good evening, i'm cheryl jenning was this election day update. california may see a record number of voters casting a ballot today. the secretary of state says there has been a high turnout since morning and unprecedented 18 million people registered for today's election. half nine million, plan to vote by mail.

this could be the year more people vote by mail in california than in person. one of the interesting issues is measure n. voters will decide whether to impose the first city-wide taxo& on soda.]3néç supporters say it will help fight childhood obesity. critics say it's too broad. a lot of people voting by mail waited until election day to drop off ballots and in san jose, some didn't have to leave the cars. the elections office setd set up a drive by ballot in san jose's most-watched race is measure d, raising minimum wage to $10 an hour. police in redwood city are looking for two thug-like looking men they say tried to intimidate voters. neighbors called in to report two caulk indication men wearing all black asking vote grorz an id in front of the church. californians not required to show ids when going to vote.

they left when police called before 10:00 this morning. if you have trouble voting you can report problems at the polling place to abc 7 news election hot line. the number is on the screen. that number is also posted on abc 7 news.com. voting stopped briefly today in unwunnx'tñ precinct so a poll worker could be honored. secretary of state deborah bohan was recognized for being the longest serving poll worker in california history. >> started with a salary of $13 a day. now, it's $175. >> 18 presidents and 120 elections. you still have two hours to vote in the bay area.

>> announcer: this is an abc news special. "your voice, your vote." election night 2012. live from abc news election night headquarters in times square, new york, now reporting, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. good evening, and welcome back. and despite this 30 some odd degree temperatures in sometimes square, new york, where 182 million people come every single year, people are gathering there and watching the big screens. and we are big here at abc news election headquarters. we have our polling team. we have our team watching the polls sanding century. and we have our analysts and of course, we have our team of experts and insiders who have covered so many campaigns and involved in so many campaigns. but we have a lot of states to tell you about. we are ready to project. and let's begin right now, 14 more states, the polls have

closed. and we project, george, michigan. michigan goes to president obama. >> and that means that mitt romney has now lost his second home state. of course, he grew up in michigan. his father was the governor of michigan as well as, as well as the local president of voters. and he never had a chance. the auto bailout questioned in the state of michigan. >> here's another state we're ready to project. again, this is not a surprise, but texas is going for governor romney. you there have it. projected winner in texas, governor romney. in new york, in new york, a solid blue state is going for president obama. again, we do not know how many people ultimately were able to vote here. those results will come in later. with president obama's fourth best state in 2008. >> anyone affected by hurricane sandy, though, could vote at any polling place. >> right. the lines were unbelievable today. louisiana projected winner,

governor mitt romney. in kansas, projected winner for governor romney. in nebraska, projected winner for governor romney. >> so far, he's only getting 4 of 5 of nebraska's electoral vote. in two states where you can get an electoral vote by a congressional district. there's a congressional district in omaha. >> of course, it comes down to one electoral vote tonight. if there's some division popular in electoral votes, and that one makes the difference, nebraska could be it. and north dakota, we have a projection, again, for governor romney. south dakota, a projection for governor romney coming up tonight. also in wyoming, a projection for governor romney. and we have a projection in arkansas. i want to tell you that governor romney has now become the projected winner there according to exit polling. we do not have enough information right now on two states, though, i want to tell you about, wisconsin, as we know, it was a question of

whether it was really in play or not because the vice president, congressman paul ryan, of course, governor romney's vice president. and also, colorado, everybody watching colorado tonight, george. >> two important battlegrounds. we have reporters in those battlegrounds. all the battlegrounds tonight. we're also joined by ed gillespie, senior strategist for mitt romney. ed, thank you for coming on tonight. we just heard from david axelrod from president obama's campaign. he said all the results are coming in exactly as the obama team expected. is that what you're seeing tonight? >> well, i'm seeing they're coming in exactly as we expected. so we may be looking at the same thing from a different angle here. we feel very good, george, about the votes that are coming in, and where they're coming from. especially when you look at the target states in florida. the panhandle, along the corridor, we're doing very well critical to carrying the state of florida. on the gulf coast, areas that

senator mccain slightly carried, we're carrying in a big, big way. we're optimistic there. we're looking at virginia, ohio, the other target states. we feel very good that independents are breaking governor romney's way here on election day. and our intensity is up and our turnout is high. >> let me ask you, diane sawyer, hello do you this evening. the same thing i was asking david axelrod earlier, when is the last time you talked to the governor? tell me what he's saying right now, what he's saying all day? >> well, i haven't spoken to him. he's been on the plane. he mate stops in pittsburgh, cleveland. a little e-mail. i generally, agens a rule, don' talk about what i talk about with the governor. he's very upbeat. about how the campaign is closing out and how things are going in terms of his message and the crowds we're seeing and the intensity. and to turn the economy around to create 12 million jobs, to

grow the middle class and unleash america's domestic energy. we've made our case. we've made it very strong. and we feel good about this campaign and we feel like we have the momentum here on election day. >> ed, you mentioned that you feel very good about the vote in ohio. what is encouraging to you about what you're seeing about the numbers coming in in ohio? and is that still a part of the president's firewall that you can take away? >> yeah, we believe it is, george. when you look at coal country and the votes that are going to come in there. we feel good about -- >> the southeast? >> yeah, southeast ohio, and as well as the suburbs outside of cincinnati, suburbs outside of columbus and cleveland as well. i'm not sure they're going to get the marks out of cuyahoga that they're hoping for today. lake county as well. and we're seeing turnout very high in the republican regions that john mccain carried in 2008. we'll far exceed those margins

with governor romney tonight. >> and governor romney told reporters today, i feel like we put it all on the field, we left nothing in the locker room." did those last campaign stops he made today help? >> you know, i think they did. i think what we wanted to show our volunteers is just that. that we weren't leaving anything on the field. that governor romney was going to campaign to the very end and give it all he had. we've had volunteers who have worked countless hours, knocking on doors, making phone calls. and governor romney appreciates their dedication so much. and he wanted to show them he was there, too. he was going to do everything he could. we feel very good about pennsylvania, a state we haven't had a chance to carry a long time on the republican side. we saw the numbers about a month ago start to creep up. we saw an opportunity there, again, coal in the west. and the strong appeal for governor romney in the suburbs when about 20,000 people turned out to see him there, that was

pretty exciting. so we're optimistic tonight and feel very good about things. >> if you're right, you'll have the pleasure of seeing david axelrod of shaving off his mustache. ed gillespie, thanks. >> thanks, george. >> let me go to governor brown. we know there are very different views of who the electorate would be tonight? >> absolutely. the republicans are counting on the electorate, much like 2004 than 2008. what you see so far is the bricks lining up on what i call the democrats blue wall. michigan calling in there. if they hold the 18 states with only wisconsin and pennsylvania still in play in all of them, add new mexico which they're certainly going to win. add ohio, you're right on the brink. both campaigns, no matter what road they start on, the end of

the line is ohio. >> but there's a point here, imagine making the very interesting point about the nonwhite vote. and how it is curvie ining to t democrats. but it didn't have to. black voters used to be republicans. and hispanics were very much up for grabs for many, many decades. there aren't that many of them. it's because of things that happened in the body politics that have changed the view, and that's the other thing we're looking with women. >> it might have been hard for the african-american vote running against president obama. to nicolle wallace, one of the things you saw, going back to president obama when he ran for president back in 2000, president bush, he got over 40% of the hispanic vote. it looks like mitt romney is going to get under 30%. >> in the 20s.

george, what he did in 2000, he built on in 2004 by having almost an institutionalized outreach programs. we had an office of outreach. george w. bush believed in communicating everything in spanish and english everything he did. john mccain was in the 30s, mitt romney in the 20s. interestingly, jeb bush at the republican convention sounded an alarm. he said if the republican party doesn't just -- it's not just a message problem. it's a substance problem. we've been warned as a party. >> stupid is the word he used. >> nicolle makes a good point about substance. everything that i've seen over the last couple of weeks. black voters, latino voters they're not voting over racial pride. it's about issues, it's about jobs, it's about health care, it's about education. that's what is driving turnouts. >> george, weigh in on this, it

was kind of a race to the right on immigration? >> the superdynamic of the intermable debates that the republicans had. it was arguably that 13 months ago when rick perry entered the race, right to the top, the governor of texas, mitt romney made a decision to quickly flank governor perry on the right, on the subject of immigration. he came right against the dream act, promising to veto it. and in a few months after that, he was using the language of self-deportation that is making life difficult enough for the 11 million in the u.s. it's awfully hard to unring that bell. >> on the dwindling share of the population which is white male, and on the increasing center of population of the latino voters. they're 400% share of electorate than years ago.

that's the problem for the republicans. >> a couple of statistics that have to send shutters 2042, as we know, this is projected to be a nonwhite minority nation. and 35.6% of hispanics are under the age of 18. so there it is. but we have a projection to make. without our music. we need our music. many of you are tweeting you that our projection jingle sounds like the sound of the nfl plays before the draft is made. but abc news is ready to project that republicans will retain control of the house. maybe that is a surprise, but this is early, jon karl? >> this is not a surprise, but democrats needed just 25 seats. republicans could actually pick up a seat or two. now, the big question becomes what happens when nancy pelosi -- she was the speaker of the house. a lot of people expected her to retire when the democrats lost control two years ago. she stayed on as minority leader

to lead her party back to majority. that has not happened, does nancy pelosi stay on? >> the last time i interviewed nancy pelosi, it sure seemed she was setting up for retirement. do you think i'm right? >> the first only -- only female speaker of the house. and that was very important for her, talking about breaking the marble ceiling of becoming that republican speaker. i think she wanted to fight to bring that back. but it isn't a surprise right now, but we are looking at a list of republican freshmen who had come in with that tea party movement, you know, that was so strong a couple years ago. and who were from districts where they should have been quite vulnerable. and it looks like they've held on, many of them. >> and ron brownstein, if you look at the congressional approval ratings, at times dropped below 10%, it's hard to get an approval rating that low. >> absolutely.

as we continue to see most incumbents winning. and also this is a reminder of how personal rather than party-wide the case that president obama has made against mitt romney. it's a case that mitt romney is someone you can't trust because of his background, he hasn't made a strong case for democratdemocra democratic governance. >> heading back to george will. >> john boehner was quoted a few days ago saying if he wasn't conceding, if barack obama wins, boehner said, we, meaning the house caucus of republicans, will have just as much as a mandate as he will. washington, again, when the dust settles may look pretty much as it did before the dust was kicked up. >> after a total of $6 billion -- >> $6 billion. >> to leave the congress exactly as it was before. >> okay. let's take a look at the senate now because that is another

question. >> we have another projection. senator casey of pennsylvania has won re-election. he is a democrat. out of the whole for the democrats right there, his opponent tom smith actually spent a lot of his own personal fortune. $17 million, jon karl, to make a run there. but it did not seem to get that close. >> this is one, late in the game, republicans thought they had a chance at. they saw polls seeing it close. this may be an indication of where pennsylvania is going in the presidential race. >> the candidates that spend all their personal finances, their children must be ready to kill them. this is not a good thing for family unit. >> okay, cokie, with that, we'll take a break. and we'll be back with a lot more states. a lot more senate votes coming in. and the searches on social media. in america today we're running out of a vital resource we need

to compete on the global stage. what we need are people prepared for the careers of our new economy. by 2025 we could have 20 million jobs without enough college graduates to fill them. that's why at devry university, we're teaming up with companies like cisco to help make sure everyone's ready with the know how we need for a new tomorrow. [ male announcer ] make sure america's ready. make sure you're ready. at devry.edu/knowhow. ♪ how did i get here? dumb luck? or good decisions? ones i've made. ones we've all made. about marriage. children. money. about tomorrow. here's to good decisions. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. massmutual. we'll help you get there.

let's compare. germ party! eww! now the colgate total mouth. nice! [ female announcer ] colgate total fights 90% more plaque germs. i'm in. [ female announcer ] colgate total. less germs. healthier mouth. to volunteer to help those in need. when a twinge of back pain surprises him. morning starts in high spirits, but there's a growing pain in his lower back. as lines grow longer, his pain continues to linger. but after a long day of helping others, he gets some helpful advice. just two aleve have the strength to keep back pain away all day. today, jason chose aleve. just two pills for all day pain relief. try aleve d for strong, all day long

sinus and headache relief. >> announcer: "your voice, your vote," election night 2012. now, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. and it is so fitting, as we look at times square, cross roads of the world here at our election headquarters. that we remind everyone how many

people around the world die, literally die for the right to do what we have all done today. and we are being watched around the globe tonight. as we said earlier, countries from mexico to britain, to india, to brazil, china is watching every move. how many people have they designated to watch everything happening in this country tonight. and we got a wonderful tweet on why tonight matters because somebody says, "my grandparents made sure i would always be free because the whole world is watching." >> and we are getting more signs that every vote matters, diane. in the state of florida, where else, you look at 78% of the vote in right now. i want to show the map right there. and look at the margin between president obama and governor romney right there. let's put that back up right there. it's just about a little over 1,000 votes. 2,000 votes separate them right

now, 50/50 down the middle. with 70% of the vote in. i want to go to abc's cecilia vega covering that for us. cecilia, you're in the heart of it, tampa, that is the microcosm of that state right there. >> yeah, literally, george, millions of votes up for grabs. the university of florida. a polling place, watching students vote all day here. they're having a good time. after they come out to vote, they come out to this spot right here where they're celebrating in this right to vote and exercising their right. i'll tell you, you see a state call for one candidate or the other, this crowd gets louder and louder. you see the diversity of this crowd behind me. that is one of the big issues in this election, one of the reasons florida is such a strong battleground state. latinos critical to obama's win here in the state of florida. making up a fourth of the population. a sixth largest population of

latinos in the country. nearly 14% of state's total voters are latino. let me tell you about a man we met out here who has been driving up and down this area in florida, his name is yako. he's a cuban immigrant. he came into the country 15 years ago. he's a cigar maker. he owns a little shop in tampa. i said, who are you voting for? he said, he's voting for barack obama. that's different than the traditional republicans in the state of florida. i said, why are you voting for obama? what he said, george and diane, it's very telling and speaks for the state and the anger right now. he said he's voting for barack obama because, i quote, republicans are treating latinos like their ignorant. i said, well, do you like the job that the president has done? he said, well, it's just okay. so that tells you how strong that divide is. and really, how much work both sides have to do to bridge the

parties between latino voters. >> cecilia, while you've been talking more results are coming in. 79% of the vote. i want to go back to florida now. more results have come in. mitt romney has pulled over in the lead there. a 12,000 vote lead there. let me bring to you jake tapper in chicago with the president. >> hi, george. well, florida is one of those states that the obama campaign would like to win, but it's not one of the states that they feel like they have to win. if florida or virginia go for president obama, this election likely looks like it will go to president obama. but they're not counting on virginia and florida. they're counting on states like ohio and wisconsin and pennsylvania. oh, here we go, george. i'll give it back to you. >> here we go. this is a big one, jake. pennsylvania, abc news based on the polls is ready to project that president obama has won pennsylvania with its giant load of 20 electoral votes, george. >> that's right.

we saw governor romney go into pennsylvania today, trying to steal that race, steal that state away from president obama at the last minute. but he was not able to do it. he was doing that because his concern about the state of ohio, they believe this is their insurance policy against a loss in the state of ohio. now, the path for governor romney to get the 270 electoral votes is even more slim. he's going to have to win virginia. he's going to have to win florida. at least one of those big states, ohio or wisconsin to have a chance to get to the 270 electoral votes he needs. we're going to be back in just a minute. a lot of other states coming in. as we move across the midwest and the west, election night 2012 continues. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ yeah. yeah. then how'd i get this... [ voice of dennis ] ...allstate safe driving bonus check? what is that? so weird, right? my agent, tom, said... [ voice of dennis ] ...only allstate sends you a bonus check for every six months you're accident-free... ...but i'm a woman. maybe it's a misprint. does it look like a misprint? ok. what i was trying... [ voice of dennis ] silence. ♪ ask an allstate agent about the safe driving bonus check. are you in good hands?

good evening, i'm cheryl jennings. this is abc 7 news election day update. an hour and a half before polls close across california. san francisco city hall is where abc 7 news reporter vic lee has been checking on voter turnout. look how busy it is. >> let me tell you. there are monster lines in the base of city hall.

and the cities have sent out about 265,000 ballots by mail. that is roughly half of the registered voters in the city. so far 9,000 people have dropped off ballots here in city hall. of course many more are dropping off those balances at their neighborhood polling places. so far, citywide, we've seen a 20% to 25% turnout. we spoke with elections chief earlier. he hopes for a completed tally tonight. >> people finish at a decent time tonight around midnight. it my seem slow because if we have a line here in the city. >> he predicts a 50% turnout in san francisco. less than the 90, excuse me, 82% turnout in 2008. that was a record and part of far less than the 71% in the last 10 presidential

electrics. so that is the latest from city hall. lots of late voters. arnst tells fuss you make it will be cast but you've got to be in line by 8:00.vkև >> still plenty of time. if you have trouble voting you can report problems on abc 7 news election hot line. the number is on the screen. and also posted on abc 7 news.com. now, when polls close at 8:00 ballot counting begins in california. election workers count ballots as well as today's ballot first, then becoming more difficult. workers have to check signatures on pro visional and last minute vote by mail ballots. computers do tally votes, however, election workers will count 1% by hand and do this while campaign workers watch everything they do. it means we'll not know the winner of

close races for days. let's get a check on the forecast right now from spencer christian. >> we'll start with a look at live dopplerfdkjs hd showing approaching fog moving towards the coastline this, isyú÷ñ going to bring us cooling tonight. after two days of high temperatures, we're going to have a bit of a cool down, today more records. 82 degrees in oakland airport. 91 in gilroy. there are÷oqó some ties in the state. that is about to end now. it's ending. here comes a cold air mass from the gulf of alaska headed our way will bring us showers. here is the accu-weather forecast. a sharp cool down tomorrow, showers likely on thursday. maybe thunder mixed in friday morning. showers taper off and cool, weekend. >> candidates and plenty of others are using social media like never before this election day. abc 7 news is following and

joins us from the newsroom. >> the president is making a last minute push to get out of the vote with the video he posted on you tube. >> on election day, it's almost more this, is every. we won't get another chance tomorrow. >> he posted another video of attorney general camela harris riding the obama campaign bus. governor romney up loaded a short film about the plan for america. you can see all results live on abc 7 news ipad app free on the app store. now, back to you. >> thankbcc you so much.kfy you still have 90 minutes to vote when polls close tonight at 8:00. abc 7 news will be live with first returns. you can get realtime results at abc 7 news.com and live updates on facebook.com/abc 7 news and through twitter. abc 7 news bay area. our next abc 7 news

>> announcer: live from times square in new york city, election night 2012. here again, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. and we are seeing the electric jumbotrons. and it's been an electric night here back in the crossroads of the world, times square. and as we know, a presidential election underway that will decide so much for american families. from taxes to health care, as we said, george, from war to the future of this country. and right now, we are learning more about each of the states. particularly those states that we have not yet projected that are key. >> big battleground states. we're watching them closely. let's start with florida right now. 81% of the vote is in right now.

it's divided right down the middle. 50/50. it looks like it's about 500 votes separating governor romney from president obama right now. i want go to jon karl, you're digging into the state right now seeing where the vote comes in. what does that tell you? >> i'm seeing real problems for mitt romney. take a look at where the florida vote is coming down, even though it's tied statewide, look at the all important hillsborough county, tampa, this is where mitt romney carried. right now, he's trailing to barack obama, 45% to 53 -- i'm sorry, i hit the wrong county. 53, obama, 45, mitt romney. miami-dade county, this is a huge obama county. this is one he won by 16 points last time. only 40% of precincts have reported in miami-dade county. so as those votes come in, that

is going to add dramatically to obama's vote total. >> it's a photo finish. i want to go back to jake tapper because he's, of course, at president obama's headquarters right now. we didn't give him a chance to finish his thought. what are you hearing, jake? >> one of the things i want to talk about is pennsylvania now that we've projected that state for president obama. we talked a lot of the electorate, obama is anticipating these voters turn out. one of the big concerns that the obama campaign has, what happens to white working class voters. we're seeing that in wisconsin right now. president obama was even with white working class men in 2008. right now, according to exit polls, white working class men are go for mitt romney, 50% to 48%. that's why they're going after states like wisconsin and pennsylvania. but here's the thing in pennsylvania, they have lots of

urban ces urban centers and the drive. my mom lives in philadelphia. today when she went to vote, she was the 383rd person. i just talked to valerie jarrett. she said she talked to mayor nutter, the mayor of philadelphia. he said, valerie, i got this. they're going to get the vote. i said what about wisconsin? she said, i think she thinks there's going to be enough young voters and young women. that's why you see president obama doing the things he's been doing the last few weeks, going on drive-time radio shows. doing entertainment shows. going on mtv. trying to get out to the young people and trying get out to the women voters and of course you have the big city machines to drive up the urban vote as well. >> and at the end of the day, as we're talking tonight, as the states start to come in, we may

again be talking about the president obama get out the vote machine which was awesome four years ago. >> especially in the state of ohio. the other big prize that both campaigns want the most. to ohio, 36% of the vote. president obama, 53%, romney, 46%. ron brownstein, take a look at thing big state. they both have targeted hamilton county. 7% of the state, excuse me, 56% to 42% for president obama, with very little vote coming in so far. >> which would be striking. that is one of the counties that flipped. a traditional republican party. hamilton county, biggest gains in '08, carried over from '04. but he also in '08 was able to reduce the margin in a lot of the state that he lost. that's going to be hard to do this time which really increases

the importance of him of avoiding aversion of hamilton coun county. >> i went to go to jorge ram ho ramos. >> we have to see how the lat o latinos are going to be voting. but we knew that most latinos are voting for president obama. but it has mostly to do with immigration. president obama is supporting immigration reform. mitt romney says he wants a solution. however, saying that it has affected him on the one hand. on the other hand, we are following the possibility of having more senators. we already have senator marco rubio, and ted caruso is going to be the new hispanic senator. 40% of the population, and right

now, we should have at least 17 senators, we only have 3. we're going to see in arizona if we have the fourth one. there are 24 members of congress who are hispanics, if everything goes right, we might end up the nice with 30 or 31. >> how many times have you said this is the postcard from the future with the hispanic vote. but let's talk about the economy and some of the improving unemployment numbers in some of these states, george. >> all across, and people feeling much better about the economy in the last few weeks before the election. i want to bring in the polling director gary langer who digs in for us and manages all the abcnews.com polls. one of the things you've seen before the final tracking that president obama was closing the gap with mitt romney and who you trust to manage the economy. >> exactly, george. this was mitt romney's opportunity in this campaign to seize the day and trust the economy. the most pressing issue in the

election. instead, in the exit poll, they're running dead even in trust of the economy. and then obama has a ten-point lead, on who has greater american empathy. if romney cannot win in trusts of the economy, trails in empathy, he's got a challenge. and that's one of the factors that's keeping the race close. >> even though he has the coe credentials, he was trailing in thinking he cared about people like them. i want to go to barbara walters, i know you've been in touch with the business community throughout this. what have they been saying to you today? what did they think was going to happen today? >> well, you know, the whole campaign that we've been hearing about, it's jobs, jobs, jobs. so one would assume that the president would have gone to the business community and said, what can i do to help? most -- i'm generalizing, but

even some of his backers in chicago were very disappointed that he doesn't seem to listen to anybody. back in december of 2009, he had a job summit. and some of the biggest heads of business came. and they all said, is this what you should do. and the president listened to them. and then said, yeah, and did nothing. so they feel that he didn't listen to them. he doesn't return their phone calls. if they call him, even some of his biggest backers, valerie jarrett calls back. so what they suggest that the president needs to do, if he wins, is to go to ego-stroking 101. i don't know who gives that class. but it's not just the business things about who's going to tax, who's going to do more. it's that he doesn't seem to listen to them. and if he wants their help and he wants jobs and if he wants to help the middle class, he has to do a little more ego stroking. >> and president obama came in the last few days and talked

about appointing a secretary. and governor romney sort of mocked that. i want to go back to virginia. nicolle wallace, we've got about 55% of the votes in right now. it seems as though governor romney has pulled a little bit, 51% over 48% over president obama. but president obama is still doing quite well in the county of richmond, enrico county, and chesterfield county. >> well, virginia, in a lot of these states, is the tale of two states, really. romney is watching the counties in the north part of the state to make sure they don't fall too far hiepsbehind. the flip side is making sure they don't get too far behind. think about what barbara said, that was the sum total of the campaign message. not only are you not listening, president obama, but you don't get it. you don't know how to make jobs. but he didn't connect it to the

empathy part. it isn't that i don't understand jobs, it's i understand how painful it is when you don't have one. if you go into the states and try to understand why romney isn't doing better, he hasn't even wrapped up the states that he must win in. it would be the inability to do what you talked about. i understand the pain of not having that. >> heading to the romney campaign headquarters. they're looking at what they've got to get down, david? >> and i've got to tell you, diane, i just talked with the key romney surrogate who just said, quite frankly, he's anxious about ohio at this point, given the numbers that they're seeing and the internal data, the early information that they're starting to look at. i can tell you in the room, you can actually see senator rob portman on the big screen behind me who did the debate, with mitt romney, largely credited with helping to prepare governor romney for that key first debate

where he essentially turned this race around, going into that debate. you'll remember that president obama had a lead in the polls, a significant lead, and how the tide turned after that first debate. and senator portman got a lot of credit for that. governor romney often jokes on the trail senator portman was so good at playing the president, sometimes he couldn't talk to him after the debate session. just to give you the mood of the room. one of the first states they called, when they called michigan. obviously, there was a little hope, given romney's history with michigan. they are from there. his father was a senator there. his mother ran for senate unsuccessfully as well. then they called pennsylvania. as george pointed out there was that additional trip to pennsylvania just today. the romney team saying they felt they had a shot at least there. and that state has now gone away. so they're watching very closely, a very tight race in florida, as you've been talking about.

and, of course, virginia as well. as nicolle just pointed out without those two states, they're very concerned with the early numbers coming out of ohio tonight. >> again, the intuition of crowds you're surfing that crowd. i want to go back to donna brazile and nicolle, the two of you have been at this crossroads before. what's going upstairs with the candidates? what are they saying to each other at this moment? >> they're calling everybody. they're calling the field director. they want to know who's in charge of the precinct. you can get more information. look, this is a very tenuous situation. especially in florida. i'm looking at these florida numbers for corridor. president obama is doing very well, he's performing wonderfully, but mitt romney is doing good in the panhandle area. i'm worried about the south palm beach county looks good, but, of

course, dade county is not completely in. you're looking at the numbers, you're calling in precinct camps and you're also on the line with your lawyer. >> george w. bush had karl rove and matthew dowd, they were ver roc ferocious consumers of this. at a certain point, the anxiety just takes ahold of you. it's actually harder on the families. the families are sometimes more anxious. in president bush's case, his brothers and sisters for have voracious for that granularity. >> we are getting more results from florida right now. matthew dowd, now 83% of that in for the state of florida. president obama has swung into the lead. this thing keeps see sawing back

and forth. >> here's the thing that you take a look at. you take a look at other statewide people on the ballot and how the presidential candidate is looking in relation to that. you look at ohio, you take a look at florida, in all three of those cases, the counties are the democratic places. you take a look at virginia, more democratic places are left outstanding. right now, if you're in the headquarters of mitt romney, you're wondering what happened to our -- what has happened to our theory of this race that we thought we had this, we thought we could win pennsylvania. we thought we could do all of this. we thought we were going to close out florida. and right now, barack obama's theory of the race so far has unfolded the way they expected so far. >> okay. we are going to come back with so much more. again, we are watching every single minute as this information pours in. and we're getting real votes now. these are real votes. they're not exit polls. we'll tell you more when we return with election coverage

2012. music is a universal language. but when i was in an accident... i was worried the health care system spoke a language all its own with unitedhealthcare, i got help that fit my life. information on my phone. connection to doctors who get where i'm from. and tools to estimate what my care may cost. so i never missed a beat. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. to take a centrum silver multivitamin every day. i told him, sure. can't hurt, right? then i heard this news about a multivitamin study looking at long-term health benefits for men over 50. the one they used in that study... centrum silver.

that's what i take. my doctor! he knows his stuff. [ male announcer ] centrum. the most recommended. most preferred. most studied. centrum, always your most complete. but with advair, i'm breathing better. so now i can be in the scene. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator working together to help improve your lung function all day. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than twice a day. people with copd taking advair may have a higher chance of pneumonia. advair may increase your risk of osteoporosis and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking advair. if you're still having difficulty breathing,

ask your doctor if including advair could help improve your lung function. get your first full prescription free and save on refills at advaircopd.com. . >> announcer: abc news live coverage of election night 2012. here again, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos.

and again, we are back, big states coming in. we are watching real vote, popular vote come in, george. >> they are coming in everywhere. also the projection in the senate. quickly i want to show. there's the map, the president's race that has been called so far. a lot of red, a lot of blue. no big surprise that president obama able to hold on to the state of pennsylvania that governor romney tried to take in the closing days. over sherrod brown, a democrat defeated josh mandel. jonathan karl, another hold for the democrats here. >> known blown opportunity for the republicans. they had 25 seats up for grabs and they have now failed in another shot. this is a state, sherrod brown, they felt it was a state to get the pickup. they tried to recruit. josh mandel is 35 years old. he jokes, he looks like he's only 19. couldn't get traction in the

state of ohio. that's one lost opportunity for the republicans. >> cokie. >> they're finding variety. going into the election year, it looked like the republicans had a fabulous menu in front of them of seats they should be able to pick up in the senate. they had all these retirements of democrats in republican states. and they had vulnerable incumbents. and so far, it's just not working for them. >> you know, cokie, in a lot of these states, we're learning that the name on the back matters less than the color on the front of the jersey. once again, over 90% of obama voters are also voting for sherrod brown. we're seeing quasivoters. and the electorate is now treating them in a quasipar meant tear way. >> we'll have a congress that's more deeply divided along party lines than the one we just had. >> that's a conversation for later in the night, but it's a pretty depressing well.

>> well, you know, hope transcends, isn't it? anyway, we'll come back to that. i've been watching katie couric over here. she's been monitoring. what are people asking out there? well, you know, diane, the twitter-verse is on fire. as you can imagine, there's about 65,000 political tweets going on per minute. so far, 18.3 million. take a look at some of the things that are trending. we've heard about long lines in florida, also in virginia and ohio. so the first thing that's trending is stay in line. people are getting frustrated by those lines but fellow tweeters are encouraging them to stay put. because even if polls close, if they are online, they can still vote. apparently, one of the tweeters is our very own donna brazile tweeting encouragement. busted, donna. and linda mcmahon lost a

high-profile senate bid in 2010. she's running again. she spent an estimated of $8 million of her personal fortune. number five is interesting. the hash tag if romney wins. a lot of people saying if romney wins, what kind of thing will change. florida and ohio also on the list. by the way, the aforementioned mitt's body man who david muir talked about earlier in the coverage. mitt's body man tweeted this photo at the westin hotel inset for a big nigh. >> as we look at this map, president obama fighting close, mitt romney needs to win in the northeast, florida, virginia and north carolina. we're not ready to project any of the states in the midwest put president obama having a somewhat more comfortable lead

in his firewall, ohio, wisconsin and iowa. >> yeah, and these are those three states, ten days ago, the romney folks basically had put away, that were going to reach out into pennsylvania, reach out into michigan, reach out into ohio. and basically, the obama campaign said we're still competing there. it's going to be difficult. >> here we go. we are ready to project, new hampshire. put it up on the screen because we are ready to project the first big battleground state here of new hampshire. with four electoral votes. as we know, a small number of votes for president obama has won it, george. >> only four electoral votes but they are important electoral votes. another home state that mitt romney that he's lost. he has a home in wilkesboro, new hampshire. he lost there. and to pull up the projection board that we have right now, that gets president obama,

according to our projections, not all the votes are in right now. but if you add new hampshire to those solid blue states the democrats have won consistently. that gets them 29 shy, matthew dowd, of the votes he needs that narrows considerably mitt romney. >> when i said earlier, you have a theory of the race, and right now, the map is unfolding according to the obama campaign's theory of the race. there is no place yet that mitt romney campaign has gotten a state that they said was in their theory of the race. and that's a difficult spot to be in at this point in the evening. >> okay. i want to have -- can we have our music here. this is another big one here. minnesota, we're ready to project. minnesota right now. again, another state, the romney campaign raised a question, whether it was in play. well, tonight, we know that president barack obama has won minnesota. >> they had hoped to get in there. they spent some money there in the final week of the campaign, but this is something that is

always difficult for them. a solid blue state. jon karl, news from minnesota? >> i just want to say that david axelrod's mustache now safe. the three states that he said obama would hold have been held. these are three states late in the game that romney took a run at, pennsylvania, michigan and minnesota. >> and it puts all that much more pressure on the other midwestern states that are still out there. ohio and wisconsin. president obama leading. not in wisconsin right now, but the early vote coming in. according to the polls, ohio, he is still leading as well. the road is getting narrow for mitt romney. we have a lot more results coming in at 10:00. when we come back, four more states, including swing states of iowa and nevada. we have a lot more projections coming up. . >> announcer: multitouch screen, courtesy microsoft.

and it feels like your life revolves around your symptoms, ask your gastroenterologist about humira adalimumab. humira has been proven to work for adults who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease. in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief, and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. get headed in a new direction. with humira, remission is possible.

good evening, i'm cheryl jennings with this abc 7 news election news update an hour before polls close. few problems today but police in redwood city are looking for two men who tried to intimidate voters at mount zion baptist church, neighbors reporting two thuggish looking white men asking voters for an

id in front of the church. you're not required to show an california schools banking on prop 30. governor brown proposed that plan. prop 30 raises money for public schools and community colleges that would temporarily add a quarter cent to the sales tax, and raise taxes for californians earning more than $250,000 a year, opponents say it's too expensive, voters in richmond deciding whether their story will be the first in the country to tax shug dwrary soft drinks. measure n, supporter says will go to programs to fight childhood obesity. opponents spent $2.5 million to defeat measure n. social media craze could get some voters in trouble. jonathan bloom is in the newsroom to explain. >> we're talking about instagram.

turns out people are posting photos of ballots from inside of the booth. that may be patriotic but in states it's against the law. here in california you're not allowed to take pictures within a hundred feet of a polling place. in other states you're for bidden from photographing a ballot. keep the phone your pocket. afterwards pop up on our ipad app for latest results. cheryl, back to you. >> that is good to know. thank you very much. and more than 1200 people in oakland are now u.s. citizens after earning the right to vote on this election day. they were naturalized this morning in oakland, together representing 104 countries. you still have about an hour and two mens left to vote in the bay area. polls close at 8:00. abc 7 news will be live with first returns, realtime results on abc 7 news.

news special. "your voice, your vote." electric night 2012. live from abc news election night headquarters in times square new york, now reporting diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. and look at the crowd now in times square. the pace is thickening on this election night. and we are now 7:00 p.m. on the west coast. the crossroads of the world filling up right here. looking up to the big screen, it's a big night, george. and we are getting some big states in and some big results. take us to the map right now and show everyone what's happening. >> first of all, let's look at the big map right now. those are the states that have already been called. no big surprises yet. governor romney winning where he was supposed to win. president obama winning where he was supposed to win. but he's picked up a state of

new hampshire with four votes. and he's blocked governor romney in other states. let's start out with virginia right now. let's look at where the vote is coming in in virginia. as we pull it up, we see that -- i'm going to pull it up right here -- we see 62% of the vote is in right now. governor romney has a four-point lead over president obama right now. we move over to ohio. in ohio, you see president obama has the lead, 51% to 47%. florida is still neck and neck. a lot of the vote has come in, in florida, 85% of the vote has come in florida so far. president obama holding on to a slim 1% lead there. let's take a look at what that may mean for each candidate's path for the 270 votes. i want to put up in the middle of the floor here the possibilities that show how each side can get to 270. if you look at it right now, we've already given president

obama new hampshire. so he's got, if you add new hampshire to the solid blue states, he's got 241 electoral votes. matthew dowd, that shows how rough the path is for mitt romney. even if mitt romney wins virginia which is neck and neck right now. even if he wins florida which is neck and neck right now, he'll only have seven votes ahead of president obama. he would have to win either ohio or wisconsin to stay in the game. just as an example, let's put up wisconsin right now, president obama where he's ahead right now, that gets him to within 19 votes of what he needs. and any combination of two states would get him there. mitt romney would have to run the table. >>s as the two campaigns watch this unfold tonight, as they watch abc news, one campaign is nodding their head, yes, this is what we thought was going to happen. and the other one says, where do we go from here? and we're behind in states that

we absolutely have to have. >> if you look at every state still on that board, president obama is either tied or ahead in every one of those. >> and i want to give projections right now if i can. one in the senate, and also one coming up in indiana. we've got massachusetts coming in. and i'm going to bring in jonathan karl right now, elizabeth warren is projected by abc news to have won the massachusetts senate race. and also, in indiana, we have a projection. congressman joe donley, another democrat. jon karl. >> yeah, these are two republican seats that they have now lost. now, they need seven seats the rest of the night to gain control of the senate. fascinating on massachusetts, if you drill down on this, scott brown in our exit poll had a 59% approval rating in massachusetts. that is usually a slam dunk for winning re-election. incredibly popular, here is the problem. obama's going to win that state huge. and he lost obama voters 86 to

14 for elizabeth warren. one other point about this, elizabeth warren now comes into the u.s. senate as one of the most high-profile democrats in the nation. and also one of the most liberal members of the u.s. senate. we've lost a moderate, gained somebody on the left. >> i want to see cokie and ron weigh in here. >> i want to say joe donnelly, the exception to the rule, but elizabeth warren, and scott brown. voters increasingly are voting for one side or the other to be in control. and the individual legislator's ability to separate themselves from that is diminishing. >> and as ron referenced donnelly, he is the democrat we are now projecting to have won the senate seat in indiana, and that's key. because indiana, of course, has gone for governor romney. the republican richard mourdock defeated long-term republican

senator richard lugar in the primary. in these polls today, voters came out and said they would have voted for richard lugar in the senate today if he were on the ballot. but since they was defeated by mourdock, they voted for donnelly. >> when lugar ran six years ago, he ran with 81% of the vote. >> mourdock is a man who talked about rape in a way that made women uncomfortable. okay. i have more projections to make. well, at least one more projection to make. polls have closed in four more states. i want to let you know that in utah, we project that governor romney has won 68%, as you probably know. is mormon, 68% of the state. 4% of the national vote. and we also have a projection in montana.

governor romney has won there. it is a solid red state, george. but we do not have a projection, not enough information at this point in nevada. big battleground. >> even though 70% of the vote probably came in before the polls even opened. i want to continue the discussion with george will. you look at this, richard mourdock, a two-party candidate who defeated richard lugar. like todd akin, who has now had trouble. i wonder if this is going to cause soul searching inside the republican water, a year ago, republicans in washington believed that the senate was going to flip over to republicans. tonight, the odds are steeper than ever. >> i think, george, the souls have been searched and the decision has been made in the upper reaches of republican leaders in the national party, that the fact that republicans kicked away three senate seats in their view, in 2010, in nevada, colorado and delaware, because they picked weak, implausible candidates.

and now to lose indiana and possibly missouri, that would be five seats that they fell on their hands and dropped. and this is going to lead to pressure from the central republican leadership in the country to get more involved in candidate selection. so that this doesn't happen quite so frequently. >> matthew dowd, is there a potential republican leadership? >> this say problem that the fraternity is in charge of the campus right now in the republican party. there is no leadership -- wait a second, if mitt romney loses tonight, there is going to be a tremendous search for this. and the reason why these candidates have arisen is because the voters are now in charge of the republican primary of who they want to pick and this is their choice. >> well, the word "fraternity" spells out the problem. and it would be more of a sore rotty. my blackberry is lighting up with people not involved in the senate race and saying i really hope this sparks a cycle of soul

searching that results in action. our party does a whole lot of talking about how we need to change. again, i go back to jeb bush who was a featured speaker at the republican convention. it goes back to that and it now has a grave impact on the senate race. >> you talk about jeb bush. i want to go back to florida. 86% of the vote in florida. president obama holding a 50% to 49% lead over mitt romney. ron brownstein. >> you see the two biggest parts of the race inkencapsulated rig now. barack obama only 38%, and yet still in position to win because we saw the minority share of the vote increase more than people expected. we're up to 17% of the vote being hispanic. he's winning more than two-thirds of hispanics.

i think if mitt romney loses tonight, it comes when the words self-deportation left his mouth. >> the hispanic vote was 9% four years ago. there's some indications that it's now 10% which is a big change. let's go to david muir at the romney headquarters. again, tell us what they're sensing in that room, david? >> it's a very quiet room, diane. ron brownstein just talked about the change in demographics that perhaps will be shown in this particular election. the changes face in america. i can tell you when self-deportation was mentioned in the primaries, we actually sat down to interview the governor. we asked him do you mean people have to go back home and get in the back of the line which is some of the language he used in our interview. and he said yes, go back home and get in the back of the line. he became a little more moderate during the election. those two words

"self-deportation" as ron mentioned. i want to give you a bigger picture here on the romney campaign and ann romney who has been his soul mate and most powerful weapon. really for six years, mitt romney has been running for president. two campaigns. we know they're in the hotel here not too far from here. mitt romney with his feet up. his grandchildren running up and down the hallways of the hotel, do what grandchildren do as their papa, as he's called wait. the romney campaign has been telling me that they felt very confident about ohio. but that is a combination of florida, virginia and ohio. and so these returns have got to be making him a little nervous tonight. it's too close obviously in florida, virginia and ohio, they really need to make the map work. ann romney in recent days perhaps of the two has been most willing to reflect on the riggers, to reveal the riggers

of two presidential campaigns. visually emotional in colorado springs. and last night, she took to the podium. she choked up a bit. you could hear it in her voice, she said i'm overcome. she had said on "the view" with barbara walters a few weeks back, if they do not win this race, she's not doing this again. calling the shot there on the program. but obviously that indicates that her husband won't be running for president if he doesn't win tonight. but mitt romney himself said he's not going there. earlier today he was asked if he had thought about what he would do if he doesn't win this race. he said, well, i have my family, i have my life. that's valuable. 1,018 words that victory speech. >> okay, david. nicolle wallace, i know you're reaching your contacts and you have some news? >> well, i just spoke to some former colleagues from my time

with governor jeb bush there, on the ground there, the gop insiders doubted the obama are ground game but not anymore. they said they had a ground game, we've been saying all night, that was superior to anything that was mounted before. it's their judgment that it appears it's worked. >> with more than 86% of the vote in florida we show it again, president obama holding on to a little more than 35,000 vote lead. let me switch to ohio where more than half the votes have come in in the state of ohio. president obama, 51%, governor romney, 58%. let's bring that to jake tapper in chicago. and are they feeling it right now in chicago, jake? >> they feel confident. first of all, you have the people here in this arena who are cheering both every time there is a state projection for a victory. new hampshire was a big one. pennsylvania a big one. minnesota, of course. but then, the question, of course, of what's going on in obamaland.

president obama is in his hyde park home in chicago with his family. some campaign aides telling me there is a lot of cautious optimism. it's not over yet. we still have to hear from ohio and wisconsin. the obama team feeling good as matt dowd has observed. the projections they made about the electoral about who would turn out today have so far, and it could change, but so far has proven correct. so there is a lot of excitement about that state of ohio. there was a lot of focus by the obama team and their allies on ohio. on making sure that they had field offices. there were 131 obama campaign field offices in ohio, compared to 40 for romney. 100,000 campaign ads for obama in ohio, compared to 40,000 for romney. that state is like a psychological experiment. you know, like those skinner boxes they have, those controlled environments for mice, for animals? ohio is like a political

science, psychological experiment. a 40,000-square mile skinner box where these people were subjected to all these ads talking about how nefarious and evil mitt romney was. so the working class white voters breaking for romney in other states so far as we can tell, are not breaking that way yet for romney. it's more of an even race in ohio. so there is a lot of confidence right now. >> and they've been treating as a constant almost excessive effort for years to get that ground game in place, jake. i want to go to barbara walters because you were raising your hand earlier, signaling. do you have news? >> well, just when we were talking about mrs. romney and what they're going to do. you know, the president is 51. if he lost, he has years ahead to have a career, to continue in politics. he said he may want to teach. i mean, he has a whole future.

mrs. romney has said, this is it, if her husband loses, no more politics. she's not sure what they will do, no more politics. she is tired. she has been not just his constant companion, but his strategic adviser. at one point, she said a few days ago, she looked as if she's limping because she still has fatigue from multiple sclerosis. it's not just a very personal feeling for her. and it's not whether or not he becomes president, it is the end of his political career if he does not win and a whole different life for them. >> this has been a long journey. seven years he's been run for president. >> that's right. and we have to point out that mrs. obama said that the president is running the last night of his last -- and the way she emphasized last campaign. everybody knew what she meant. okay, we're going to take a

break now at abc news election night continues. virginia, ohio, florida, they may determine who may become commander in chief tomorrow morning. and who will give that gracious concession speech coming up. more projections when we come back right here in times square. i'm an expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. massmutual. we'll help you get there. get coricidin hbp. the number one pharmacist recommended cold brand

designed for people with high blood pressure. and the only one i use to relieve my cold symptoms without raising my blood pressure. coricidin hbp. [ male announcer ] the way it moves. the way it cleans. everything about the oral-b power brush is simply revolutionary. oral-b power brushes oscillate, rotate and even pulsate to gently loosen and break up that sticky plaque with more brush movements than manual brushes and even up to 50% more than leading sonic technology brushes for a superior clean. oral-b power brushes. go to oralb.com for the latest offers. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ sometimes life can be well, a little uncomfortable. but when it's hard or hurts to go to the bathroom, there's dulcolax stool softener. dulcolax stool softener doesn't make you go, it just makes it easier to go. dulcolax stool softener. make yourself comfortable.

♪ in the 37-degree temperature, did you see them out there? everybody looking up at the jumbotrons? everybody cheering. they come to gather because it is democracy in america. tonight, and our own josh edwards is right down there among them -- josh elliott, i should say. >> indeed, it is, diane. and i can tell you, it's a balmy 37 degrees. the hearty stock of wisconsin joins us now. i do want to mention, earlier tonight talking about the youth vote. we have another first-time voter with us. your name and who you voted for. >> my name is cara and i voted for obama. >> you hail from about 30 miles

north of milwaukee. why did you vote for the president? >> well, i agree with obama's policies on health care. women issues are a big one for me and also his foreign policy. >> what would be your biggest fear if mitt romney were elected president tonight? >> i would not like to see the tea party take any more control of the american politics. but it's not going to happen because i have confidence in obama. >> thank you very much. i want to quickly bring in jamie from appleton. jamie, you voted for? >> i voted for obama. >> and why is that? >> well, i'm a line mechanic out of wisconsin, it's a union position. and romney supports right to work and i think that's a union-buster. for my livelihood, it's a big deal that we don't lose a union. >> it's a certain we heard in several states. i also want to lodge you, you are here doing yeoman's work, working to turn the lights and power on in greater new york

struck by sandy. what are you seeing out there? >> a lot of devastation. a lot of people hurting. >> thank you, jamie. very quickly, we got to send it back. we have some breaking news. i did here the nfl drasticer. >> thank you very much, josh elliott reporting from times square. we do have a projection right now. as it is new mexico, and the projected winner is president barack obama. we also have a projection, though, in the senate. and here it is. senator claire mccaskill, the democrat, is projected to retain her seen in the senate, going again to jon karl. >> so this is the second republican that they thought for sure was going to win going down over comments about ape. rape. todd akin made the comments saying women don't get pregnant from legitimate rape.

that tanked them. claire mccaskill was seen as the single most vulnerable democrat. >> 61% of the people, coming out of the polls in missouri, said that akin's comment on rape was the reason that they were -- that they voted against him. so that was a huge upset. >> it is huge. and with that win by claire mccaskill in missouri, it is almost certain that the democrats are going to hold on to control of the senate. they have won the seats so far tonight that they need to win. we have a lot more projections coming up. red or blue. we want to know what you have to say. we'll keep looking at those battlegrounds, ohio, virginia, and florida. stay with us, election 2012 continues. [ female announcer ] want to spend less and retire with more?

then don't get nickle and dimed by high cost investments and annoying account fees. at e-trade, our free easy-to-use online tools and experienced retirement specialists can help you build a personalized plan. and with our no annual fee iras and a wide range of low cost investments, you can execute the plan you want at a low cost. so meet with us, or go to etrade.com for a great retirement plan with low cost investments. ♪ for a great retirement plan with low cost investments. and need to get my car fixed? progressive makes it easy, because we give you choices.

you can pick where to get your car fixed, we can cut you a check, or, at our service center, we take care of everything for you. [ relaxing music playing ] [ chuckles ] -whew, so many choices. -take your time. -the service center. -okay. giving you choices -- now, that's progressive. call or click today. good evening, i'm cheryl jengs with this election update. we're about 35 minutes from polls closing in california in what could be a record-setting election. an unprecedented 18 million people registered to vote. roughly 77% of those eligible. half of them plan to vote by mail this, could be the year more people vote by mail in california thantth÷ their precincts. the proposition 30 is one of

the big issues drawing people to polls here in california. governor brown made a last minute push for it today. that measure wants to raise billions for schools and universities by increasing sales tax a quarter percent and raising taxes on those who make more than $250,000 a year. and america has been turning to social media in record numbers this year, especially twitter. abc 7 news is in the newsroom to show us what is trending. >> you mentioned this is a record-setting election. we've learned it's record-setting in more ways than one. twitter had 20 million tweets today, making this election most tweeted-about event in history. number one trending topic here is hash tag, i voted and nationally up until minutes ago another was stay in line. on the east coast in florida and virginia polls are closed and a lot of voters are still waiting to cast their ballots.

the candidates, voters and big bird are encouraging them to stay in line to make sure to cast their ballots. the voting wraps up, you can get live results on our free abc 7 news ipad app. back to you. >> good to know. thank you very much. officials stopped voting today to honor a very special poll worker. secretary of state behahn presented the 96-year-old with a medallion award for being the longest serving poll worker in california history. her first election was back in 1949. today the polling place was in her garage. let's check on the forecast from sandhya pat yes. -- patel. >> we may be talking about snow as well. here is live doppler 7 hd. we have radar on mount st. helena. we're watching fog developing. it's going to get cooler,

record-setting day. airport 82 degrees, that was a new record. ç records tied in redwood city. both 80 degrees today. you can say goodbye to the warnlth. we have big changes in the forecast. the forecast is cooler tomorrow, showers on thursday. we're bringing in thunderstorms early friday, could see snow mixing in with rain then trying out only to get frosty cold sunday and monday morning. >> thank you so much. we have other measures foblgs are thinking about. santa clara county jortz deciding on an 8% sales tax increase. and it's on the ballot in san ma day quo county. oakland asking voters to approve a $12 property tax increase to help out the oakland zoo. and a tax is up for a vote in

richmond. a penny per ounce on sugar tweetened drinks. abc 7 news will be live with first returns. you can get results on abc 7 news.com.

♪ >> announcer: from times square in new york city, this is election night 2012. once again, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. and it is great to have all of you back with us on this election night. election headquarters right here in times square. and as we know, we are waiting only for five more states for the polls to close in five more states. and we have a projection to give you right now. which affects this race a lot. it is wisconsin. coming in, part of the midwest firewall, as we know, for president obama. and we project he has won wisconsin, of course, his vice presidential candidate paul ryan's home state. i want to go straight to george stephanopoulos right now.

george, is there a chance that lightning could strike? are they hoping for that in the romney camp and how would it happen? >> it would have to strike in ohio, it would have to strike very hard. president obama's midwest firewall, as you said, it's holding. he's winning wisconsin, the home state of congressman paul ryan. he's also won new hampshire. a key battleground state. i want to show everybody what has happened. that means if you add those two states that the democrats have won in the last several elections that gets president obama to 251 votes of the electoral votes. if you add that in with ohio, that gives him 269. look at the states he has to choose from to get the electoral vote. nevada, in with 70% in. iowa, a lot of early vote in. colorado where he's tied. florida with 80% in, president obama is still ahead. i want to bring that to jon karl. because when you look at these

big states like virginia and florida, which mitt romney must win, there are still a lot of democratic votes to come in. >> that's right. especially when you look at florida, you drill down to the biggest democratic state of florida. this is miami-dade. look, only about two-thirds of the vote has been counted in miami-dade county. that means a lot of barack obama votes are yet to be counted in florida. and when you go up to the state of virginia, same thing. northern virginia is the stronghold for democrats. fairfax county, one of the biggest, you know, strongest counties for barack obama. and you look, only 29% of the precincts are reporting. there are a lot of obama votes yet to be counted in virginia. >> okay. >> and we have the mayor of chicago standing by, rahm emanuel right now, bringing him in. he's smiling. he is smiling big. so, tell us -- >> i haven't smiled in a week. >> you've talked to the president. and you're on the tarmac to meet

him when he landed in chicago. tell us what they're saying inside -- inside his room where the family's gathered? >> well, first of all i haven't are talked to him, you know, since last night. i haven't talked to him tonight. but i think from the campaign's perspective, obviously, as you guys have just mentioned now that wisconsin is there, as you look at ohio there, and that firewall, there are places that he's done better in this election than he did in 2008. and for everybody who predicted there was a falloff of energy for democrats, you're just not seeing that. this is as exciting as it was for democrats in 2008. the president's ran a clear campaign. you know, obviously, florida's not in yet. and there are places in florida where democrats are doing better and stronger than they were in 2008. and that says something about the coalition the president put together, built also for this election. and the clear choice he presents to the voters.

and the good news for governing, from the perspective of a mayor, former chief of staff, this was a clear choice. there wasn't a lot of muddle. if the president wins, obviously, i'd rather be looking at the map today. it's clear that he has the energy to go forward, the policy he's laid in front of the country because they could not be starker about the different directions they wanted to take the country. if he wins, he's ready to take the goal to find that common ground. we have a lot to go tonight. iowa's not done. ohio's not done. you just put up the maps. but given where things are trending, it's obviously a better night for the president as we like to say in chicago, it will be a sweet home, chicago. >> are you ready to call it? >> nope. i'll leave that to you, george, i'm just ready to party when you do. >> what's the biggest thing, when you look at that map tonight, where do you think president obama's going to surprise people tonight?

>> well i think the two things that you look at -- a couple things. one, everybody's talked about the president's kind of heavy african-american, heavy hispanic vote. every women, american coalition. iowa is older. iowa does not have a big minority population, heavily white. and yet he's going to win it, or looks like he's going to win it. that's something that people have to look outside the norm if he wins this. if he wins in ohio, i think what has to be looked at, the president's decision when it turned to be unpopular on the auto industry, and mitt romney policy was very costly and very strong for the country. and i think if they does win florida, things like on medicare, in the exit polls, people trust him more on medicare. if we're going to strengthen medicare, it has to be done with

the basic tenet of medicare. >> thanks a lot for coming on, mayor. we'll talk to you soon. we want to go back to florida, 89% of the precincts reporting. 50% to 49% for president obama. more than a 50,000 vote lead. mayor mentioned iowa. let's look at what's going on in the state of iowa that's a key battleground important to president obama's electoral firewall. with 26% of the vote in so far. 59% for president obama. 40% for governor romney. and ron brownstein, so much of that vote came in early. >> yeah, absolutely. you know, if you can bank -- bring iowa and the data along, as well as ohio, you're there. because with wisconsin, we passed an historic milestone. there are now 18 states that voted democratic in each of the last elections which is the most states they've won that often ever, since the formation of the modern party system. and, george, it's the reversal of the dynamic when you and i

first started covering politics in the 1980s when republicans had the advantage in the electoral college. and democrat has to thread the needle. as long as has they had that solidly in their control, every republican nominee had to basically thread the needle to get to 270. and none have fallen in this election. >> i want to go back to matt dowd. we had ed gillespie talking about winning independent voters. but as you said all along, there are actually very few independent voters. paint a portrait of who we're seeing emerge about who is an independent voter in this country. what does it say about a m moderate reporter in this country. >> well, is this something that began to emerge in the bush 2004 race which is the reason why when doing that race we did what we did in motivation in turnout. what happens is people find the color of the jersey and this

country is getting more and more polarized. independents, while people call themselves independents, they perform as a partisan. you can no longer base your profession on what you think an independent is based on what it is in the past. >> i wonder, gary langer, i know you're there in the back. i wonder if you can tell us what you've seen so far in the exit polls that gives any clues as to how the independents are breaking tonight. >> yeah, let me pull it up for you, george. independents in our current data are splitting very evenly between the two candidates. 45% to 49% contest. but what's helping barack obama, more democrats are showing up than are republicans. not by as wide a margin as we saw four years ago. but by enough of a margin to keep it a very close race. >> we're going to see these tectonic shifts. we may have to redefine all of our terms after this map. >> with wisconsin, i think this say huge sign about this evening

tonight. we've seen new hampshire, we've seen other states. but wisconsin, paul ryan was picked by mitt romney not only was he going to talk about big ideas which never seemed to happen in this race. they traded rob portman who they considered, a senator from ohio, and they picked paul ryan. they've lost wisconsin. if they end up losing ohio, there is going to be speculation that they picked the wrong guy to win the wrong state. >> george will? >> every year, we have a big argument about whether or not he can cleaverly clear his state. this is the 17th election sinced second world war, 11 of them, a running mate has failed to carry the state. and you go back to something ron said a moment ago about threading the needle george herbert walker bush was the last republican to get over 300 electoral votes. since then, height was his son, in 2004, 386 -- >> 286. >> sorry?

>> 286. >> sorry, 286 is the best a republican has done. >> jake is a human google over here. >> but 58% of the popular vote. >> okay. i want to talk about another gap because we haven't really explored it in depth. come in, cokie, and tell us about the gender gap. >> well, we are seeing it. you know, we've seen it in every election since 19 yoo80. in our national polls now, we are seeing the president doing better among women, as we always have are seen him do. it is not what he was doing in 2008. >> 13 points. >> 13 points. but it does look like it's about 11 points or so. so he has -- he has definitely improved that. in the same way as independents. what we were seeing in the pre-election polls going into today was romney doing much better among independents than

he seems to be doing among people coming out of the polls. and the same thing is true among women. and in some states we're seeing a very big gender gap. iowa coming up is one of them. >> and i want to go back to the map one more time because the vote continues to come in in florida. we're now up to 88%. 88% of precincts reporting in florida right now. president obama, 50%, holding on to that, 50% to 49% lead. nicolle wallace, it's over 100,000 votes. >> i'm still hearing from my friends in florida during my time with jeb bush, they're saying we underestimated president obama on the ground game. i think that's one of the biggest stories of the night. they didn't rest on their laurels of four years ago. they've exceeded what they had built. exceeded that infrastructure. and we're seeing results of that. >> donna brazil, we're seeing in over the weekend. >> and the lines are still long, george. i'm telling people to stay in

line, we're bringing coffee and doughnuts and some hats. it's very important that people stay in line. if i can get that delivered. i haven't found anybody. the obama campaign invested in two things. one targeted undecided voters. and secondly, they expand the electorate. those two things helped them. there were a lot of people who did not vote in 2010. the obama campaign targeted those voters so they had a good ground game and they expanded on it. >> anecdotally, we were hearing a lot about people at the polls problems at the problems. i want to check in with pierre thomas. pierre, are you hearing anything now at the level of more lawsuits, more concern out there? >> diane, the news so far tonight is that -- other than long lines, it's going pretty well. the campaigns are not reporting that any litigation as far as we can see it. and i guess right now, the major

issue is, again, there are 10,000 lawyers and election watchers out there ready to pounce if anything goes wrong. but so far, it's good for the democracy, no major problems. >> by the way, we heard that foreign observers are coming in 2000, europeans with the american polls which seems ironic. >> to verify that gap, 16,000 between the president and mitt romney. still 50% to 49%. >> okay. and i just want to go one by one, if i can, to each of you. because at this point, at this crucial point, this is heading towards the election of a president here, one way or the other. tell us the thing you're seeing we've got to watch that we're not paying attention to. matt dowd? >> well, i want to reflect back on what we talked about earlier in the evening which is the divided nature of this country. and the changing nature of this country. right now, mitt romney, there's more conservatives voting than

in 2004 when the last republican won. the romney is doing as well among akconservatives. he's doing better than bush did. among white males and women. right now, he's not performing in the states because the country has changed. the country is less white, younger and much different than eight years ago. >> i want to go to ron brownstein. you made a proclamation which i read. and you said that it will be the last attempt to squeeze out a national majority from the white vote in this country. the last attempt by the republican party? >> win or lose, i think people inside the romney campaign understood that they're in a position that they could run as well among white voters as any republican challenger ever, eisenhower in '82, reagan and bush in '88, and still lose. the president's math was pretty

sample, he had to win 80% of the minority vote, 46 of the majority vote. he is right at that line today. some of these sunbelt states where the big minority growth has been, he is surviving even weaker numbers than that among white. if you can win florida at 38% of white, it's a pretty ominous message for the republican party. >> and rerejoined there, george will? >> making projections about the continuing growth of various sections of the electorate, the following calculation comes up. if in 2020, the republican nominee gets john mccain's portion, the asian-american and hispanic vote he will lose by 14,000 unpopular votes. >> we just learned that jesse jackson jr. of illinois has actually been re-elected despite

spending the last several months in the mayo clinic. >> that's solidly democratic. but jesse jackson jr. who has won re-election in illinois has not been seen in congress since early this summer. i mean, he left for health reasons. he has not campaigned at all. and as you see, solid lead, democratic district, re-electing a democratic congressman that has been missing in action for almost half a year. >> so many of those congressional seats are so safe. >> i want to go back out and see if we can put upside by side, jake tapper and david muir. i think it's interesting to be in each of those rooms right now. feeling the mood of the room. jake tapper, if you can hear me right now, i have a question i wanted to ask. at one point, president obama's campaign but an exclamation point after "forward." it was just "forward" and then

an exclamation point. when did they decide that was the right message for them? >> well, they went back and forth about a lot of different messages. and they ultimately decided "forward." and then there was some criticism that "forward" with a period was not really conveying the kind of "forward" that they wanted. so the exclamation point was added. i should say that we're having somewhat of an exclamation point here this evening. the crowd is jubil lent. 22-year-olds screaming. senior staffers being cautious. poring over data. and those in the senate re-elected, claire mccaskill and as david axelrod betting his famous mustache. so big cheers when axelrod's

'stache was saved, diane. >> let's go to david muir. >> you're talking about "forward" with the exclamation point. those slogans carried the campaign. for mitt romney, you can't help but notice on the podium it would say "real change." his argument was i'll be the real change, obviously, it was the talk of hope and change four years ago. but if you elect me on day one, i'll begin to reach across the aisle. that was the other half of the closing argument, that he would be the one to strike up a bipartisan tone in washington. the challenge of that message, though, just as they began to deliver it, you saw hurricane sandy and that powerful image that was much talked about at least in the political world. president obama, of course, going to the storm zone and standing side by side by governor chris christie. chris christie applauding him. and of course, it takes on a

life of its own on "saturday night live" and what have you. i did ask the senator overnight on the plane, i said, if romney does not win this election, will there be talk about the pause button that hurricane sandy might have caused, the stop in any kind of momentum that mitt romney might have are still had from that first key debate? and he told me, this election is bigger than that chris christie moment. he said the american people are smarter than that. i got to tell you, i can't imagine it not coming up in the conversation if this evening ends with the re-election of the president. >> right now, we want to talk about the projection for arizona. >> that means the electoral votes in so far, very, very close. 171 for governor romney. 173 for president obama, but of course, so many big states to come in, ohio, virginia, florida, north carolina, all that when we come back. vote 2012 continues.

>> announcer: multitouch screen, courtesy, microsoft. ar? i think my purse is upstairs on the bed. it's not here. check the dining room. nope. the upstairs closet? announcer: moms everywhere are finding ways to keep kids active and healthy. get ideas. get involved. get going at letsmove.gov. everyone in the nicu, all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes

in light of having a child that needs you every moment. i wouldn't trade him for the world. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. if you're caring for a child with special needs, our innovative special care program offers strategies that can help.

[ man ] hello!!!! hello!!!! [ all ] ohh! that is crazy! are you kidding me? let me see! oh! what! that's insane! noooo! mr. woodson? oh hello! hello! [ whistles ] hello! [ all ] hello! [ coach ] caleb, i've got someone i want you to meet. hello. [ male announcer ] at&t. the nation's largest 4g network. covering 3,000 more 4g cities and towns than verizon. rethink possible. but i'm still stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't unstuff your nose. what? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels speeds relief to your worst cold symptoms plus has a decongestant for your stuffy nose. thanks. that's the cold truth!

♪ >> announcer: from times square in new york city, you're watching live coverage of election night 2012. and our intrepid josh elliott still out there. josh? >> indeed i am, diane. and it is truly, the crossroads of the world. it certainly feels like the crossroads of election night as the crowd is growing ever more raucous as more results go up. as the president seems to be gaining momentum, the crowd's beginning to swell. we were earlier talking to an electrical worker, jamie from wisconsin who we had to cut off. he was talking about his efforts helping sandy, and, jamie, we thank you and all the great folks who are pitching in to help the storm-ravaged area

here. i do want to talk to some voters. you guys have been a part of it tonight. first of all, your name. >> shannon mccullough. >> was this your first vote? >> yeah, i'm 18 years old. i just moved here. i'm so proud. >> what was it like for you? >> well, my parents have been building this up. i don't know, it's so cool to vote. i was on facebook today and saw a post of susan b. anthony, she was beaten for trying to vote. i just put so much more emphasis on the women getting the right to vote. i'm just really stoked to be here. yeah -- >> you're happy. >> yeah. >> look, social media's played an unprecedented role in this election. i want to bring in -- your name? >> scott stringer. >> scott, what are people saying online? what are the conversations

you're having with friends and family, on twitter perhaps, on facebook? certainly, how do you see it affecting this election? >> you know, i'm going to be honest, i've been very upset with what i see on line, a lot of my friends kind of putting out what -- kind of speaking points that a lot of candidates have put out throughout the entire election. that upset me. i would have loved to have seen more conversation. social media with conversations, a lot of people put out what they believe in and people start shooting them down. it's the same exact points that the candidates are saying. exactly what they want to see in america. that has upset me in this election, to be honest. >> both campaigns made efforts to pursue the youth vote. the single most important thing to you -- actually, we do want to head back inside again. we'll send it back to george and diane. george? >> a lot of big poll closings coming up. you see the tally, 174 electoral

votes for mitt romney, 173 for president obama. so many big states to come in. ohio, virginia, and florida. so many big states not yet closing isnn just a few minutes. a lot more votes coming in. election night 2012 continues right here from times square, the crossroads of america.

>> good evening, everyone, i'm carolyn johnson. >> i'm dan ashley. the polls are closing in the next minute or so in california. large crowds in city hall tonight. people are still lining up to vote. >> and carolyn tyler joins us live now. we'll get to vote. and you're correct that lines

are long down in the basement here at citywyñ hall. they snake all the way around and according to john arnst that is not indication of high voter turnout. he says in the last 10 electrics turnout in the city of san francisco was at least 7%. he doesn't think that is going to happen this time, but as you said, anyone who is in line by 8:00 in just the next minute or so is going to be live in an fran city hall, abc 7 news. >> thank you very much. >> very few problems at the polls, policem